Quinn's Code
by chrisfardell
Summary: AU. Quinn Morgendorffer is interested in Computers and Anime rather than Fashion. This leads to changes when the Morgendorffer sisters start at Lawndale High. But what is up with Daria?
1. The Esteemsters Code

Page 67 of 67

**Quinn's Code (A Daria AU)**

**Chapter 1 – The Esteemsters Code**

**Lawndale, MD, USA**

**Monday, September 20, 2005**

The blue Lexus approached the High School.

"Girls, I just want you to know your mother and I realise it's not easy moving to a whole new town - especially for you, Daria, right?" Jake Morgendorffer said.

"Did we move?" his 15, almost 16, year old daughter, Daria, said with a touch of sarcasm.

"I am just saying you don't make friends as easily as, uh, some people," Jake said.

The car radio suddenly blared "_It's all about the Pentiums!"_ as Jake's 14½ year old daughter Quinn turned up Weird Al Yankovic's song _It's all about the Pentiums_.

"Quinn, for instance?"

"That's not what I meant, necessarily," Jake said, as he switched the radio off. "The point is, the first day at a new school is bound to be difficult... "

Daria leaned forward and turned on the radio, cranking it up "... _If you could use a nice heavy paperweight! The Digital Media is write protected! Every file inspected. No viruses detected..._"

"Speak up Dad! Can't hear you!" Daria shouted.

"Uh, where was I," he turned off the radio. "Oh yeah." The Morgendorffers see that they had arrived at the school.

"Don't get upset if it takes the other kids a little while to warm up to you."

Quinn grabbed her bag of books and her laptop in its case as she got out of the car. "See you tonight, Daddy," she said.

With her pixie-length red hair, pretty, freckled face and pink shirt (with the logo of the first _Matrix_ film and Keanu Reeves' face on it), Quinn attracted a lot of attention.

"Hi, What is your name?" a brunette with her hair in braided pig tails said.

"Quinn Morgendorffer."

"Cool Name," another, regal looking brunette said, in a faux valley girl accent.

Meanwhile Daria slipped out of the car and into the school without notice.

"Will you go out with me?" a boy asked. Quinn put her hand to her forehead.

'Not again!' she thought. She didn't want to go out with a boy that she had just met, without getting to know him first. "Maybe," she said. She then turned to the girl whom had said that her name was cool. "You know my name, what's yours?" she asked.

"Sandi Griffin."

"That sounds cool too," Quinn said.

"Would you like to join the Fashion Club?" Sandi asked.

"There is a vice-presidential position available," the pig-tailed brunette said.

''Fashion Club?" Quinn wasn't sure that she wanted to join such a club. "And you are?" she said, turning to the one with the pig-tails.

The pig-tailed brunette hesitated before saying "Stacy, Stacy Rowe. I'm the secretary. Sandi's the President."

"Are you two the only one's in the club?" Quinn asked, with curiosity, and starting to back away.

"Oh no. There is, like, a third member, but she is not here yet," Sandi said.

"Sorry Sandi. I don't want to join the Fashion Club," Quinn said.

"Why not?" Sandi asked, archly.

Quinn started backing away, towards the school. Her 'gut' seemed to be saying that Sandi wouldn't take a refusal lightly.

"That is not where my interest lies. Does the school have a Computer Club?"

"Computer Club? Why do you, like, want to know about that? It's full of geeks!" Sandi said.

Quinn was outraged. "I am a geek! And I was popular at my last school, despite that status! So far Lawndale appears to be much better than Highland, so I am sure I will be a popular geek here too!" She ran off towards the school.

Sandi Griffin looked at Quinn Morgendorffer as she ran into the school building "I may be a freshman, but I know that geeks are, like, not popular here!" she said.

"Why did you scare her off, Sandi?" Stacy Rowe asked.

Sandi glared at her.

"Eep!"

Mrs. Manson, Lawndale High's psychologist held a picture up in front of Quinn. "What do you see here?" she asked.

"Looks like two people talking," Quinn said.

"That's right. Can you make up a little story about what it is they're discussing?"

"They are living together and they trying to put their computers in the same network, so they can share their ADSL router. They have just got up from a session of trying to get it to work. She says that he needs to get a newer version of Windows so it can talk to her Linux system. And he is saying that if she had Windows that it would work. Then she says that she doesn't want to put up with Microsoft's crapware any more than she needs to. He then says that she should then get a Mac. She then says that PC's have better hardware..."

Mrs. Manson interrupted "Very good Quinn. Now, Dora, let's see if you can make up a story as vivid as, though less technical than, your sister's.

"It's Daria."

"I'm sorry... Daria. What do you see in the picture, Dara?"

"Um... a herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains."

At recess Quinn entered the front office. The receptionist greeted her.

"Hi, I am looking for information on the Computer Club."

"Actually, there are two Computer Clubs," the receptionist said.

"Ok, I would like information on both of them," Quinn said.

The receptionist turned to the computer and soon two sheets come out of the printer.

"Here, information on the Computer Club and the Programming Club," the receptionist said, handing the sheets over.

"Thanks!" Quinn said. She then left.

At her locker, she glanced at the information on the sheets.

**Club Name:** Computer Club

**President: **Jodie Landon

**Vice President:** Jennifer Burns

**Club Name:** Programming Club

**President: **Andrea Hecuba

**Vice President:** Dewey Rogers

'Ok, at lunch I will try to get in contact with these people,' she thought. She placed the sheets in the locker and closed it.

At lunchtime Sandi entered the cafeteria to find a crowd, of both sexes, sitting around that geek, Quinn, at one of the 'popular' tables. She stopped in her tracks, causing her fellow Fashion Club member, Tiffany Blum-Deckler, to crash into her.

"What is up, Sandi?" Tiffany asked, when she had recovered from the collision. 'She usually watches where she is going,' she thought.

"That geek, like, appears to be popular! How is this happening to me?" Sandi asked, with anger. She glared at Quinn (or tried to, people were getting in the way).

"What geek?" Tiffany asked, clueless.

"Quinn Morgendorffer!"

"The new girl?" Tiffany asked.

"Yes, Tiffany!" Sandi said.

"People were talking to her in Science and in Study Hall," Tiffany said. 'I couldn't understand most of what she said. Something to do with computers,' she thought.

"Great!" Sandi said as she started moving again.

Quinn was talking to her new friends, Kristen and Cindy, about the Computer Club and the Programming club, as they ate lunch. "So you know Andrea, right?" she asked as she pointed to Andrea Hecuba's name on the information sheet for the Programming Club.

"I do. I must warn you, she is a misanthrope," Kristen Bell said.

"Oh?" Quinn asked as she took a slice of tofu off the plate.

"Like, she is not much for company. They say that she is a hacker," Cindy Robinson said.

"That reminds me of my sister. She is quite a misanthrope. I don't think she is a hacker," Quinn said, whimsically.

Kristen looked at Quinn "I think I saw her. Auburn hair, big glasses, neutral expression, ..."

"That's her, Daria. Anyway, Andrea's a sophomore, right?" Quinn said, interrupting.

"Yes, she's a sophomore," Kristen said.

"So we will have to wait until after school to talk to her," Quinn said. She took out the other sheet. Kristen and Cindy looked at it.

"Jodie's a sophomore too," Kristen said. Quinn slumped into her seat.

"What about the vice presidents?" she asked.

Cindy and Kristen looked at the sheets.

"I don't know this 'Dewey Rogers' but Burnout Girl's a sophomore too," Cindy said.

"I don't know 'Dewey Rogers' either," Kristen said.

"Burnout Girl?" Quinn asked, confused.

"A nickname. They say that she is into weed," Kristen said, whispering the last word.

"Eeewww!" Quinn said.

"My reaction exactly. Anyway we could go to the Landon's and then to the Hecuba's after school," Kristen said.

"Count me out. Andrea gives me the creeps," Cindy said.

"She is not that creepy," Kristen said.

"I don't want to go to Andrea's place, ok," Cindy said.

"That's OK, right, Kristen?" Quinn asked.

"That's OK. Quinn and I will go to Jodie's and Andrea's after school." Kristen said.

"OK," Cindy said.

"The brown Nissan Pulsar parked in front of a large house with a brown roof. "Here it is, the Landon's," Kristen's brother, Keith, said.

"Thanks!" Quinn said as she got out.

"I will give you a call when we're finished," Kristen said.

"As long as it is after 6. My shift at Cluster Burger finishes then," Keith said.

"That's cool," Kristen said.

"If we're finished by then we'll walk. I need to learn Lawndale's layout anyway," Quinn said.

"That's cool," Keith said, before he drove off.

Quinn rang the Landon's doorbell. A pre-teen African American girl came to the door. "Hi, are you here for Jodie?" she asked.

"Yes, I am Quinn Morgendorffer, a new student at Lawndale High. I'm really interested in joining the club that Jodie is president of."

"I'm Kristen Bell, Quinn's friend."

"I'm her sister, Rachel. You mean _a _club that she is President of."

"You mean that she's the president of more than one club?" Quinn asked. 'She must be really popular, an overachiever or both,' she thought.

"Yes," Rachel said, as if stating the obvious.

"I forgot to tell you, Jodie has a large extracurricular load," Kristen said, apologetically.

"Could have told me that," Quinn said playfully.

"Follow me," Rachel said, leading the other two into the house.

Jodie Landon and her boyfriend Michael 'Mack' McKenzie were doing homework when Rachel lead Quinn and Kristen to the Landon's den.

"Visitors for you, Jodie," Rachel said, before leaving.

"Kristen Bell, right? Why are you here?" Jodie said, looking up from her homework.

"Actually, I am accompanying Quinn here," Kristen said.

"Quinn Morgendorffer," she said, indicating herself. "I'm new at Lawndale and I would like to be a member of the Computer Club."

Jodie's expression was unreadable.

"Morgendorffer, where else have I heard that name today?" Mack mused.

"Oh yeah, do you know a Daria Morgendorffer?" Jodie asked.

"Yeah, she is my sister," Quinn said. "Isn't she weird?"

"Could have said that your sister was a sophomore," Kristen said.

"Didn't come up," Quinn said, shrugging. "Anyhow, Computer Club membership?"

"Sorry, Quinn. I don't handle the membership applications for the Computer Club. Jennifer does," Jodie said.

"Oh?" Quinn asked.

"I am sure that Kristen has told you that I have a large extracurricular load?" Jodie asked.

"Yeah, when your sister mentioned that you were president of more than one club," Quinn said.

"I am president of four clubs, vice president of three more, a member of even more, and involved in the school paper, the student council and the yearbook committee. So you see, I have to delegate," Jodie said.

"OK," Quinn said.

"So, do you know where Jennifer lives?" Kristen asked.

"I do have her address, somewhere. I'll go up to my room and get it," Jodie said. She left.

"So you want to join the Computer Club?" Mack asked.

"Yeah, and the Programming Club. Programming stuff is very cool! Except when there are bugs, but I enjoy the challenge of solving them. Many of the special characters are cute," Quinn said.

"I see," Mack said.

Jodie re-entered the den carrying a piece of paper, which she gave to Quinn. "That is Jennifer's address. You should be able to join the club."

"Cool. But how are we going to get there? Kristen's brother had to go to work," Quinn said, thinking.

"I could drive you, I was about to leave anyway," Mack said.

"Cool!" Quinn said.

Fifteen minutes later, Mack pulled up his white Plymouth Valiant in front of a small two story house with a ramshackle yard. Quinn and Kristen got out.

"Eeeewww!" Quinn said.

"They say that her mother works double shifts at the hospital to meet the mortgage repayments," Mack said as he got out of the car.

Quinn was in thought.

Kristen rang the doorbell. Soon afterwards the door was opened by a teen with long blonde hair which covered one side of her face.

"Hi, Mack. What brings you and your friends here?" she asked in a soft and relaxed voice.

"Somebody would like to join the Computer Club and Jodie said that you handle the membership applications," Mack said.

Jennifer was then in thought. "Oh, come right in, please don't mind the mess," she said.

A few minutes later, Mack, Kristen and Quinn were sitting at a breakfast bar as Jennifer served them diet sodas.

"So, you are Quinn Morgendorffer right? I heard about the new freshman geek, but I had to see for myself," Jennifer said.

"Yeah," Quinn said.

"Your sister is a sophomore, right?" Jennifer said.

"She isn't popular, is she?" Quinn asked.

"There is no way she could become popular, with that attitude of her's," Jennifer said.

"Thank goodness," Quinn said.

"That's not the way I would have put it," Mack said, responding to Jennifer.

Jennifer shrugged. "Anyway, when she came into history class, Mr DeMartino asked her about Manifest Destiny."

"What did she say?" Quinn asked, eager for any dirt on her sister.

Jennifer began to explain what occurred in History class...

**History Class**

_Daria came into the classroom._

"Class, we have we have a new **student** joining us today. Please welcome Daria Morgendorffer. Daria, raise your hand, please," Mr. Anthony DeMartino said.

Daria raised her hand.

"**Well**_**,**_ Daria! As long as you have your hand raised... " Mr. DeMartino chuckled. "Last week we began a unit on westward expansion. Perhaps you feel it's **unfair** to be asked a question on your first day of class."

"Excuse Me?" Daria asked, nonplussed.

"Daria, can you concisely and unemotionally sum up for us the doctrine of Manifest Destiny?"

"Manifest Destiny was a slogan popular in the 1840s. It was used by people who claimed it was God's will for the U.S. to expand all the way to the Pacific Ocean. These people did not include many Mexicans." Daria said, concisely and unemotionally, albeit with rather thick sarcasm.

'Wow, that is concise,' Jennifer thought.

Mr. DeMartino was surprised "Very good, Daria. Almost... suspiciously good. All right, class. Who can tell me which war Manifest Destiny was used to justify?" He looked to someone in the class whom was wearing a football outfit. "Kevin! How about you?"

"The Vietnam War?" Kevin Thompson asked.

"That came a little later, Kevin... a **hundred years** later. A lot of good men died in that conflict, Kevin. I believe we **owe** it to them to **at least get the century right!** " Mr DeMartino said, (more than) annoyed at Kevin's stupidity.

"Uh... Operation Watergate?" Kevin asked.

_Mr. DeMartino was even more annoyed._

**End of Flashback**

"Interesting, but that Kevin sounds rather stupid!" Quinn said.

"Oh, Stupid does not begin to describe it. He doesn't get it through his thick head that I don't like being called **Mack-Daddy!**" Mack said.

"You know him?" Quinn asked. 'of course he does,' she thought.

"Unfortunately, yes. It's also unfortunate that he's the junior-varsity Quarterback," Mack said. Jennifer left the kitchen (unnoticed by Quinn and Mack, but not by Kristen)

"So are you on the team?" Quinn asked.

"As a running back," Mack said.

"Ok," Quinn said. She noticed that Jennifer was gone. "Where's Jennifer?"

Jennifer entered her bedroom and opened a drawer immediately to the left of the door. She grabbed one of the Computer Club membership applications and then went back downstairs.

"Here is the membership form," she said, handing it to Quinn.

"Thanks!" Quinn said. She began to fill it out.

Twenty minutes later, Quinn had finished filling out the form. She handed it back to Jennifer.

Jennifer read over the form and then placed it in her backpack. "I will show it to the office in the morning, but as far as I am concerned you are now a member of the Lawndale High Computer Club," Jennifer said.

"Yes!" Quinn squealed. "When's the next meeting?"

"Wednesday at Lunch, it will be in the main computer lab," Jennifer said.

"Cool," Quinn said.

The Valiant pulled up in front of a two story house larger than Jennifer's but smaller than Jodie's. Quinn got out of the car and immediately thought that it looked rather foreboding. She could see black curtains in two of the upstairs windows, to the right of the front door.

"So why did Cindy not want to come here again?" she asked Kristen.

"Andrea creeps her out," Kristen said.

"Now her house is giving me the creeps," Quinn said. "Like an icky feeling that I can't describe."

"You and me, both," Mack said as he got out the car.

"Let's get this over with," Quinn said as she walked towards the front door.

Quinn rang the door bell. About ten seconds later the door was opened by a Goth chick whom looked more Gothic than Kristen did. Quinn could see why she would creep Cindy out.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking at Quinn.

"Andrea, this is Quinn Morgendorffer," Mack said.

"I would like to join the Programming Club," Quinn said.

"Oh, come right in," Andrea said, without preamble.

The living room was sparsely decorated, with throw rugs on the floor and paintings on the wall. The stairs to the second level were at the back of the room, adjacent to the door to the kitchen. On the TV was a paused scene of blood being splattered. Quinn saw the TV and fought back nausea. "Eeewww! What is that?" she asked.

"_American Psycho_, I recently bought the tape," Andrea said.

"Yuck!" Mack mumbled.

"Ick, Andrea!" Kristen said.

"Fine, I'll change to a channel!" Andrea said, getting the hints from her guests. She then picked up the TV remote and changed the TV input from the VCR channel to a broadcast channel. Then she used the stereo system remote to start a previously paused CD. "_Hip, Hip to be a square..._" It was Huey Lewis and the News' _Hip to be Square._

Andrea danced to the beat for a short while before pausing the CD again.

"Come on, the stuff is in my room," Andrea said.

"Okay..." Quinn said, as Andrea started going up the stairs.

The upstairs corridor was dark, with the only light coming up the stairs, from a window at one end of the hallway and a slightly open doorway opposite the stairwell. The sound of dripping water could be heard from the bathroom, making the place seem even more eerie.

"That faucet needs to be repaired," Andrea said. "Only one of many things wrong with this house," she added, as she lead her guests towards her bedroom.

"There isn't a ghost, is there?" Quinn asked.

Andrea simply unlocked her bedroom door (marked Andrea's Lair Enter at Own Risk) and opened it.

Andrea's room was all black. Black curtains, black walls, black carpet, black ceiling, black bed covers. Just about the only things that weren't black were the power outlets and various other items, including some decorations. There was a heavy smell of incense and red candles burned in various locations around the room, including around Andrea's computer set-up.

"Are those cases custom made?" Quinn asked.

"Yes. Cost my parents a bundle too. They are now making noises about me needing to get a job. Like, I don't have enough to deal with already," Andrea said.

She opened a drawer below one of the computers and took out a Programming Club membership application form. She gave it to Quinn.

"Thanks!" Quinn said.

She sat at the computer desk, and began to fill it out, whilst Andrea opened her bar fridge (hidden next to the computer desk) and took out four sodas.

"List the the Programming Languages that you have any level of skill in," Quinn read. 'Ok,' she thought as she started writing down the languages that came off the top of her head.

BASIC

C++

VBScript

…

Quinn completed the form and handed it to Andrea. Andrea read it and signed it. "You are now a probationary member of the Programming Club," she said.

"Probationary?" Quinn asked.

"I will test you on your proficiency in the languages that you listed prior to giving you full membership," Andrea said.

"Ok," Quinn said. 'That's not so bad,' she thought.

"You can come over tomorrow and I'll start by testing you on BASIC," Andrea said.

"That will be OK," Quinn said warily. 'Best to get it over with as quickly as possible,' she thought.

"Good, I'll see you here, tomorrow before 4:00," Andrea said. It wasn't a question.

"I will be here," Quinn said. Being in the Programming Club was worth being in the Hecuba's creepy house many times a week.

Mack's Valiant stopped outside a large red brick house on Glen Oaks Lane. (Larger than the Hecuba's but smaller than the Landon's). Quinn and Kristen got out.

"Bye, Mack. I'll see you at school," Quinn said.

Mack waved and drove off. Quinn looked at the drive way. Her father's Lexus was there, but her mother's SUV wasn't. 'She was always a workaholic,' she thought.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to my father," Quinn said as she walked to the door.

"What about Daria?" Kristen asked.

"She'll most likely be in her room," Quinn said. There was an uneasiness in her voice that told Kristen that Daria's room would be unusual.

'Cannot be any more unusual than Andrea's surely?' she mused.

"I must warn you, he is prone to going into rants," Quinn said.

"What sort of rants?" Kristen asked.

"Oh, about his teenage years..." Quinn said.

Jake Morgendorffer was reading the paper in the kitchen when Quinn and Kristen entered from the living room.

"Daddy, this is my new friend, Kristen."

"Hi, Quinn, Kristen."

"Hi, Mr. Morgendorffer," Kristen said.

"You're Goth?" Jake asked.

"What of it?" Kristen asked.

"Nothing," Jake said.

"It's not 'nothing' Daddy," Quinn said, wondering where her Father was going with his questioning.

"I have heard a lot of things about Goths," Jake said thoughtfully.

"A lot of those things may not be true about me," Kristen said. 'Although they may be of Andrea,' she thought.

"Great!" Jake said.

Linda Griffin arrived home from her job at KSBC (as Vice-President of Marketing). When she opened the front door she saw her daughter Sandi sitting on the couch, moping. She entered the house and slammed the door.

"Sandi, what is wrong?" she asked, her tone implying that she expected an answer, pronto.

"Hi, Mother," Sandi said. She sighed and then began to tell her mother about Quinn, her geekiness and her popularity.

Once Sandi had finished telling her about Quinn and the changed situation at the school, Linda put her hands on her hips and gave a disapproving look.

"Sandi, I told you. If you loose control, you need to get back in control!"

"But how, Mother?" Sandi asked, with exasperation.

"You know the social dynamics of that place better than I do. You figure it out!" Linda said.

"OK," Sandi said, as her mother went up the stairs. ''Typical Mother, she gives me general advice but not the specifics!' she thought. She knew she would have to sleep on the problem. She heard her brothers fighting in the den. 'What are they up to now?' she pondered. She then went towards the den.

The Morgendorffers were having dinner.

"...So Mack, Kristen and I went to Jennifer's, and I joined the Computer Club. After that we went to Andrea's creepy house..." Quinn began.

"Quinn! That's not nice!" her mother, Helen said. 'Why would a house be creepy anyway?' she thought.

"It was creepy!" Quinn said.

"Did it have spirits?" Daria asked. 'She would be one to be frightened of the possibility of such spectres,' she thought.

"I did ask Andrea if there was a ghost, but she didn't answer," Quinn said, giving a nervous laugh.

"Go on, sweetie," Helen said.

"Anyway I filled out this form and Andrea said I am now a probationary member," Quinn said.

"Anything else?" Helen asked.

"I was invited to join the Fashion Club, but I turned them down. The President seemed rather belligerent. While I like to dress nice, unlike you, Daria, I am not interested in fashion."

"I dress this way because it feels comfortable!" Daria shot back.

"Dar-i-a! You can dress nice _and_ be comfortable!"

"Any other invitations?" Helen asked, hoping that Quinn would continue to tell her and Jake about her day rather than continuing to antagonise Daria (although the antagonising behaviour was usually mutual).

"Right," Quinn said, changing tack. "Well, there was the pep squad, the Anime Club and the Ham Radio Club, that is about it."

"As long as you can join them later, if you want," Helen said. "We never know how much we can handle until we try, though," she continued.

'Like I'd want to join the pep squad, or the Ham Radio Club. They are seriously behind the times! I will have to think about the Anime Club though,' Quinn thought.

"What about you, Daria. How was your first day?" Jake asked.

"Well, my history teacher hates me because I know all the answers, but there _are_ some interesting idiots in my class."

"That's great!" Jake said.

"**Jake!**" Helen shouted. She did not want her husband condoning her older daughter's disdain of her classmates.

Jake tried to recover "I mean..."

"Daria, your father's trying to tell you not to judge people until you know them. You're in a brand-new school in a brand-new town. You don't want it to be Highland all over again." 'I hope she doesn't hang out with anyone like that Duo again...'

"Not much chance of that happening... unless there's _uranium_ in the drinking water _here_, too," Daria said.

"I'm talking about you making a friend or two. Don't be so critical. Give people the benefit of the doubt." Helen said.

'Mom, you're talking to _Daria_. She doesn't give people the benefit of the doubt,' Quinn thought.

"It all boils down to trust," Daria said.

"Exactly. It all boils down to trust. Show a little trust," Helen said.

Daria was about to say something in response when the phone rang.

"I hope that isn't the Chess Club again," Quinn said. The Chess Club had called three times before Keith had picked Kristen up.

Helen picked up the phone. "Hello?" A pause. "Uh, yes, she's my daughter." Another pause. "I see. Listen, will this require any parent-teacher conferences or anything, and if so, is this the sort of thing my assistant can handle?" Another pause. "Okay, great. Bye!" She hung up.

"You girls took a psychological test at school today?"

"Yes. What of it?" Quinn responded.

Helen turned her attention to Daria. "Daria, they want you to take a special class for a few weeks, then they'll test you again."

"What?" Quinn wondered.

"It seems that she has low self-esteem," Helen said.

"What? That really stinks, Daria!" Jake said.

"Easy, Jake. Focus." She turned her attention back to Daria. "We tell you over and over again that you're wonderful and you just... _don't_... get it!" Helen said, slamming her fist angrily on the table. "What's wrong with you?"

"Is she going to have, like, a breakdown or something?" Quinn asked., with a little concern. 'We may not get along, but we are sisters,' she thought.

"Don't worry. I don't have low self-esteem. It's a mistake," Daria said.

"I'll say," Jake said.

"Definitely," Quinn said.

"I have low esteem for everyone else," Daria said.

'Maybe, Daria, maybe.'

**Tuesday, September 21, 2005**

Ten minutes prior to Homeroom, Jennifer Burns entered the office carrying Quinn's application form.

"Hi, I'm handing in a filled in application form for the Computer Club," she said to the receptionist as she handed it over.

The receptionist placed the form in the IN tray. "Wait a moment, Ms. Burns," she said.

Jennifer sighed. She knew where this was going...

"Here you are, Jennifer Burns. You have been re-entered into the Esteem-a-Teen class. It starts 3:30 at the usual classroom. Mr O'Neill will be taking attendance," the receptionist said.

She then printed out Jennifer's new timetable and handed it to her.

"Thanks," Jennifer said, as she left the office. 'It's a mistake. I _don't_ have low self-esteem. I have low esteem for the system at this mis-run high school,' she thought.

Andrea Hecuba passed Jennifer Burns as she entered the office, carrying Quinn's application form. "I'm handing in a filled in application for Probationary membership in the Programming Club," she said, handing it over.

"Thank you," the receptionist said, placing the form on top of the form that Jennifer had handed in two minutes prior.

"That's strange, I don't remember adding Dewey Rogers as Vice-President," the receptionist said, as she looked at the Programming Club information. She then looked like she was in thought.

"Interesting," Andrea said, enigmatically.

"Someone else may have entered it," the receptionist said, as she showed some confusion in her voice.

"I am sure of that," Andrea said, flatly, as she turned to leave the office.

Lunch time. Sandi Griffin entered the cafeteria and looked around. 'That Morgengeeker is just as popular as yesterday! She has single handedly turned everything upside down!' she thought. 'Right, time to change things back!' She saw Tiffany and Stacy sitting at a table near the gaggle surrounding Quinn.

"Tiffany, Stacy, something is rotten in the state of Lawndale High," Sandi said as she put her food down. 'A bit dramatic, but it is the truth,' she thought.

"Huh?" Tiffany asked.

"What do you mean?" Stacy asked, recognising the Shakespeare reference.

"I mean that new girl has, like, turned everything upside down. She is popular despite her being a geek! We need to, like, put her in her place, before previously unpopular people become popular as a result of her _example_," Sandi said.

"OK," Stacy said, not sure what Sandi had in mind. She watched Sandi eat up her food at a high speed.

When she had finished eating Sandi got up. "Come on, We're going to put that geek in her place."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Stacy asked.

"_Sta-cy!_" Sandi said, glaring back.

"Eep!"

"...And so Joey asked me what Linux was and I gave him a simple explanation, but he still didn't understand. But I could see that he wanted to know, so I offered to tutor him in Computer Studies," Quinn said.

"And his being cute and on the football team doesn't enter into it?" Brooke Danielson asked.

"Maybe. Wait, he's on the football team?" Quinn asked.

"You didn't know?" Cindy asked.

"He probably forgot to tell me. I am new here, after all," Quinn said.

"True, but what did he say?" Kristen asked.

"He said that he would think about it," Quinn said.

Sandi then made her move.

"Quinn Morgendorffer! Enough is enough!" Sandi said.

Quinn stood up. "What's your problem? I am not joining the Fashion Club! I have joined the Computer and Programming Clubs. If I want to join another club it would be the Anime Club, not something so shallow!" she said quickly, not allowing Sandi to get a word in.

"Geeks should not be popular! They are so nerdy!" Sandi said. "Why is she popular? Is it because she is cute? _Sure, _she is cute, but it doesn't make up for her geekiness."

"She is popular because she is an interesting person," Brooke said.

"Her cuteness does make up for any geekiness." Jamie White said.

"Are you _jealous_?" Quinn asked, something about Sandi's demeanour didn't add up for her.

"No! I am not jealous!" Sandi said, even though she was.

"Why are you confronting Quinn about her popularity then?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah? Why?" Quinn asked.

…

An argument ensued, and five minutes later a red faced Sandi walked away seething. Most of the freshmen had supported Quinn.

"You haven't heard the last of this, Qui-inn _Geek_endorffer!" She stalked away, Stacy and Tiffany following meekly behind her. 'I hope this hasn't affect my popularity.' she thought.

"That was weird. What is up with her anyway?" Quinn asked her friends, confused.

"She has always been rather tough to get along with," Kristen said.

"They say that her mom is a control freak. It appears that she is becoming one too," Cindy said.

"That doesn't explain it all," Quinn said.

"Stress, probably," Brooke said.

"Maybe. I know Stacy's name, but who is the other one?" Quinn asked.

"Tiffany Blum-Deckler. She seems slow, but is popular by her association with Sandi," Kristen said.

"You don't really know her, do you?" Quinn asked.

Kristen sighed. "No," she admitted. "But then, hardly anyone here does. You would have to talk to Stacy. If you can get her away from Sandi that is," she continued.

"What of Stacy, then?" Quinn asked, curious.

Jennifer entered the classroom where the Esteem-a-Teen class was held and sat at her usual (by now) place next to Jane Lane. Soon afterwards two new students entered. The first was a shaggy haired boy. He sat to the left of 'The Head' (She wasn't sure of his real name. It was one of those names that wasn't easy to remember. Everyone called him 'The Head' for the MTV character emblazoned on the shirts that he wore to school). The second was Daria. She smirked, remembering the history class she'd told Quinn about.

'There has to be a story about why she is here,' she thought.

Mr O'Neill began taking attendance, starting with her.

"Jennifer Burns?" he asked.

"I'm here," she said. She wondered why he had started taking attendance. 'No one has truanted the first session before, as far as I know,' she thought.

"Jane Lane?"

"Yo!"

"Daria Morgendorffer?"

"Here."

"Esteem... a teen. They don't really rhyme, do they? The sounds don't quite mesh. And that, in fact, is often the case when it comes to a teen and esteem. The two just don't seem to go together. But we are here to begin realizing your actuality... " Mr O'Neill began.

However, Daria interrupted. "Excuse me. I have a question."

'This is new. Good on you, Daria,' Jennifer thought.

"Sorry, question and answer time is later."

"I want to know what 'realizing your actuality' means," Daria said.

'You and I, both," Jennifer thought, with an inward laugh.

"It means... look, just let me get through this part, okay? Then there'll be a video!"

"He doesn't know what it means. He's got the speech memorized. Just enjoy the nice man's soothing voice," Jane said, to Daria.

'Someone had to answer her, I guess,' Jennifer thought. She knew that Jane didn't have any friends in the school.

"How am I supposed to follow him if I don't know what he's talking about?" Daria asked Jane.

"I can fill you in later. I've taken this course six times," Jane said.

"Ok," Daria said.

Jennifer then listened as Mr O'Neill droned on.

Mack's Valiant once again pulled up in front of Andrea's house and Quinn got out.

"Thank's, Mack," she said. Once the car had driven away, she turned to face the house. "It looks just as creepy as yesterday!" she said. She then went through the front gate and went to ring the doorbell. 'I hope she isn't watching another movie like yesterday,' she thought.

"Why did you agree to take Quinn to Andrea's, Mack?" Jodie asked as Mack turned a corner from Andrea's street into the direction of the Landon's house.

"I'm doing a favor for her. She seems nice," Mack said. Jodie looked at him.

"Don't worry. You're the girl for me," Mack said. 'You have nothing to worry about, you're the girl of my dreams,' he thought.

"Good," Jodie said, smiling.

Andrea came to the door and let Quinn in.

"You brought your laptop with you, good. We'll do the test up in my room," Andrea said.

"I take it everywhere," Quinn said as Andrea closed the door behind her.

"Ok," Andrea said.

Andrea's room looked the same as the day before. Quinn placed her laptop on Andrea's work bench and started it.

"Multi-boot, cool," Andrea said.

"Yeah, 2 Linux distributions and 2 versions of Windows," Quinn said, selecting the Windows 98 Second Edition option.

"Here is your objective," Andrea said, handing Quinn a sheet with instructions.

Quinn read it over. After she was sure she understood it she put it down next to the laptop and opened the BASIC IDE.

"Cool," she said.

Jennifer walked out of the Self-Esteem Class. 'That was a waste of time as usual,' she thought. She stood to the side of the door.

Daria and Jane exited the classroom ahead of 'The Head' and the shaggy haired boy.

"Jane, Daria," Jennifer called as they walked by her.

"Did you hear something?" Daria asked Jane.

"Here," Jennifer said, waving slightly.

"What do you want?" Daria asked.

"I was wondering if you'd like a lift home or something," Jennifer said, softly. 'Unlikely but other unlikely things have happened this week. Like a popular geek.'

"Did that sound like what I thought it sounded like?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Jennifer said. Unlike what most people at the school thought she did have a few friends, but they weren't particularly close friends. 'This is an opportunity. Quinn seems nice, and Jane is misunderstood by everyone,' she thought. She didn't know what to think of Daria though. She was an enigma.

"We could get home sooner," Jane said, to Daria.

"Ok," Daria said.

"Where are we going?" Jennifer asked as she drove her blue VW Beetle out of the Lawndale High parking lot.

"111 Howard Drive," Jane said.

"And you, Daria?" Jennifer asked.

"I'll visit Jane," Daria said in a monotone.

"Thanks, Amiga," Jane said.

"And in the class after the role-playing the boys and girls are separated and a female teacher talks to us about body image," Jennifer said.

"What do they talk to the boys about?" Daria asked, although she knew what they would most likely talk about.

Jane looked at Daria in the seat next to her. "A classroom full of guys and a male teacher?" she asked rhetorically.

Jennifer pulled the car up. "Nocturnal emissions," all three said (although Daria and Jane's exclamations drowned out Jennifer's). Jennifer then drove off again.

"I don't get it. You both have got the entire course memorised. How come you can't pass the test to get out?" Daria asked.

"I could pass the test, but I like having low self-esteem. It makes me feel special," Jane said.

"Me too, but I thought that I wouldn't give Ms. Li the satisfaction," Jennifer said, as she turned into Howard Drive.

The Beetle pulled into the driveway of a cream coloured old house with an ill-maintained yard that had an interesting looking ornament in it. Daria could see that the mailbox had Jane's last name on it and that the house was near the end of the street. Jennifer pulled up behind an old blue Plymouth Satellite.

My brother's home," Jane said, as she got out.

"Brother?" Daria asked.

"His name is Trent. You should meet him," Jane said, smirking.

"Looks like she's going to try to set you up with him," Jennifer said.

"I hope not," Daria said, as she clambered out.

"He's asleep," Jane said as she came down the stairs.

"Asleep?" Daria and Jennifer asked in disbelief.

"He sleeps an average of 15 hours a day. You have to know him for it to make sense," Jane said. Her eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" Daria asked.

"The Bank!" Jane said with foreboding

Jennifer and Daria looked outside. Two tall, well built, men had pulled up near the letter box and were walking up the path.

"They're foreclosing?" Daria asked.

"Not if I can help it!" Jane said.

Jennifer slammed the door and locked it.

That's not going to hold for long. Try to hold them off, whilst I try to find a checkbook and forge my Mom's signature," Jane said.

Jennifer leaned against the door. "Your Mom's not here?" she asked.

"She's in Kenya, or is it Uganda? One of those East African nations anyway. She is studying native pottery," Jane said.

"What about your father?" Daria asked.

"He's taking photos in Namibia or Angola, or was it Botswana or even South Africa? Somewhere there," Jane said, as she dashed off.

The suits knocked on the door.

"This is not good!" Jennifer said, not so relaxed as usual.

"I hope the other doors are locked," Daria said.

_.1_

Jane locked the door from the garage into the kitchen and then ran and locked the back door. She shook her head. She knew that the other members of Trent's band, Mystik Spiral, had forgotten to lock the doors after their practice that morning.

_.2_

The door was moving back and forth. "They're trying to break the lock!" Jennifer said.

"We're going to need a chair," Daria said.

"You can get it. I think I'm stronger," Jennifer said.

"You may be right," Daria said, she then went towards the kitchen.

_.3_

Jane was rummaging in the her parent's bedroom for a checkbook. So far she had emptied all the drawers onto the bed. 'One has to be here! I don't think they would put it up in the attic.

_.4_

Daria returned with a chair and placed it under the knob.

"Good, they're getting restless," Jennifer said.

They both could hear rather descriptive expletives being yelled.

_.5_

Jane finally found the checkbook at the back of the top shelf at the back of the walk in closet.

"I don't know why they left it up there," she said as she forged her mother's signature on one of the checks. She then went to see how Daria and Jennifer's efforts were holding up.

The door was bulging when Jane jogged up to it. The handle was cracking as the goons tried to push the door despite the chair and the efforts of Daria and Jennifer.

"I've 3 signed checks, but how are we going to give it to them without them giving the foreclosure order?" Jane asked.

"Go out a window?" Daria pondered.

"Good idea," Jane said. She opened the window to the right of the door...

Ten minutes later the three new friends were relaxing in the kitchen. "It's lucky that you did offer to take us home, Jennifer. I would have had a very nasty surprise when I got home," Jane said.

"You're welcome," Jennifer said.

"Was an interesting experience, to be sure," Daria said.

"Daria, would you like to come with me to pick up your sister from Andrea's? I don't want to go to her house alone," Jennifer said.

"You think that Andrea's house is creepy too?" Daria asked.

"It is very creepy," Jennifer said.

"Bad enough that Quinn thinks its creepy, but you too?" Daria asked for clarification.

"Amiga, you haven't been there. It has a creepiness that one cannot describe!" Jane said, shivering.

Daria turned to Jennifer. "I'll come with, but why are you picking up Quinn?" she asked.

"I would like to get to know her better," Jennifer said.

"I guess so," Daria said.

Jane waved as the blue Beetle drove off. 'Who knew that Jennifer was actually interesting once you got to know her,' she thought. She turned to go back inside and saw Trent coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Janie. How was school?" he asked.

"I met a new friend, Daria. She's just arrived in Lawndale. You'd like her. I also made friends with someone else whom I'd hadn't considered before, Jennifer. I think she has been to some of your gigs," Jane said.

"Cool," Trent said.

"Quite an interesting situation back there, don't you think, Daria?" Jennifer asked. 'She may seem antisocial, but she's actually shy,' she thought.

"It's an inspiration for my writing," Daria said.

That piqued Jennifer's interest. "You write stories?"

"Amongst other hobbies, yes," Daria said.

"Cool," Jennifer said.

Daria and Jennifer walked up the Hecuba's front path. Jennifer rang the door bell.

"I admit, it does look _slightly_ creepy," Daria admitted.

"The outside is nothing compared to the inside, particularly the upper story," Jennifer said quietly.

_.6_

"Almost done," Quinn said.

Andrea looked over Quinn's shoulder at the code. "Very good, Quinn," she said.

The doorbell rang.

"I'll be right back," she said with slight irritation.

"Ok," Quinn said.

._7_

Andrea opened the door. "Who are you?" she asked, looking at Daria.

"Daria Morgendorffer, Quinn's sister. I'm in some of your classes," she said. 'She is quite bruesque, isn't she?' she thoguht.

"You know me," Jennifer said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"You're Quinn's ride?" Andrea asked.

"Yes," Jennifer said.

"Oh, come right in," Andrea said. "You can wait here, or you can come up to my room."

"I'll go up," Daria said.

"I will too," Jennifer said, with a shudder. 'I wouldn't stay down here alone if you paid me a hundred bucks!' she thought, she stayed close behind Daria.

._8_

"Done, and ready to run," Quinn said. She then Daria and Jennifer follow Andrea into the room. "Dar-i-a! Do you have to ruin _everything_?" she asked.

Andrea raised an eyebrow. 'Hyperbole much?' she thought.

"Just hitching a ride with Jennifer. It seems you are too," Daria said.

Quinn looked at Jennifer. "Thanks," she said. She then turned to Andrea. "I'm ready."

"Cool. Then run it," Andrea said.

340 Run

A kaleidoscope of colour erupted across the monitor.

"Very good, Quinn. You get an A for BASIC," Andrea said.

"Yes!" Quinn said, jumping.

"Be sure to be here tomorrow for C++ before 4:00," Andrea said.

Quinn looked nervous "Um, could we do VBScript tomorrow?" she asked.

"No, VBScript on Thursday. C++ tomorrow," Andrea stated.

"Where is the car?" Quinn asked as she, Daria and Jennifer got off the Hecuba's front porch.

"There," Jennifer said, pointing to her car.

"A _Beetle_!" Quinn exclaimed. 'That is not good taste, and I don't get the 'it's not a car, its a time machine' argument.'

"What's wrong with that?" Jennifer asked.

"It's _old_!" Quinn said.

"It was all I could afford," Jennifer said.

"Sorry," Quinn said, as she came up to said VW. 'I change my mind. She could have gotten something much worse,' she thought.

"Apology accepted. Where to?" Jennifer said, as she started the engine.

"1111 Glen Oaks Lane," Daria said.

"Actually, we need to stop by the Mall. I need to get a book on C++," Quinn said.

"What about the internet?" Daria asked.

"Dar-i-a! There is only so much help Google or Wikipedia can _give_ a person! A book is so much easier," Quinn said.

"Ok, but straight in and straight out, and the Books by the Ton had better have a book on C++!" Daria said.

"Ok, the Mall and then Glen Oaks Lane," Jennifer said as she pulled away from the curb.

The Morgendorffer sisters and Jennifer returned to the latter's car laden with books.

"So we spent more time in the book store than expected, so what?" Quinn asked.

"Partially my fault anyway. The stores in Highland were never as well stocked as this one. I got this really good book on the life of Mozart," Daria said.

"At least I got the book on C++. What about you, Jennifer?"

"A book on Dungeons and Dragons and a Bruce Stirling Cyberpunk book," Jennifer said, as she opened the door.

Helen dashed outside when she saw the Beetle pull into the driveway behind her SUV.

"Daria! I've been waiting for you to get home since 4:30!" she said, as she came up to the passenger side of the Beetle.

"Hi Mom. I've been making a couple of friends," Daria said.

"Hi Mom," Quinn said, as she got out.

"This is unusual. The two of you taking the same route home after school?" Helen said.

"Hi, Mrs. Morgendorffer. I offered both of them a lift," Jennifer said as she got out.

Helen scrutinized Jennifer for a second before turning her attention to Quinn. "I don't see you waiting after school whilst Daria was in the Self Esteem Class," she said.

"Actually I was at the creepy house when Jennifer and Daria came around," Quinn said with a nervous laugh.

"I'm the Vice President of the Computer Club and I'm also in the Self Esteem Class," Jennifer said, remembering what Quinn had said about her mother on the way to the Mall.

"So, you're that Jennifer. I see. Anyway it's nice for Daria to finally have a friend," Helen said.

"Mom, why were you home so early?" Daria asked as she entered the kitchen.

"I took the rest of the day off to work with you on your self-esteem," Helen said.

"Mom, I'm in the care of experts. Any meddling by an amateur could be dangerous."

"I don't pretend I'm going to cure you, but if a lack of mother-daughter bonding is part of your problem, we were going to remedy that this afternoon."

"Oh. But you were also praising the fact that I made a couple of friends this afternoon," Daria said.

"I suppose that would also help. But tomorrow afternoon we're going to the Mall together," Helen said.

'Uh, oh,' Daria thought.

_Excerpt from the Diary of Alexandra Joy 'Sandi' Griffin (September 21, 2005)_

_I confronted that Morgangeeker at Lunch. But, like, it backfired! The group of people hanging around her all backed her up! Like at least a quarter of the more popular freshmen are now against me! I heard whispers in class afterwards..._

Sandi closed her diary and began to think of a plan. A plan on how to destroy Quinn's popularity...

**Wednesday September 22, 2005**

Daria and Jane walked past Quinn on the way between classes.

A boy said "So... like, what do you like to do after school?"

"Usually, I do some coding, play some games. Oh, my homework of course. But if you are asking about social activities; I like to go to the movies, or, like, a theme park or a really fancy meal now and then. A concert sounds good, if I know that somebody's got good seats and is renting a limo and stuff," Quinn responded.

"You hear that? He hasn't got a prayer," Jane said. 'I haven't seen her around. She must be new, but she is familiar somehow,' she thought.

"Tell me about it. That's Quinn," Daria said.

"Oh," Jane said. 'No wonder she's so familiar. The Morgendorffer family resemblance.'

"So, you've got any brothers or sisters?"

"An older sister, but she's a misanthrope," Quinn said.

Daria grumbled.

"Bummer!" Jane said.

Quinn met Jennifer at the entrance to the main computer lab. "How many people are there in the computer club?" she asked.

"Besides ourselves and Jodie, there are six others," Jennifer said.

"That's not many," Quinn said.

"It's more than the Programming Club," Jennifer said.

That's still not very many' Quinn thought as three more computer club members arrived. "Hi!" she said, to them as they went in.

"Hi, Quinn, they said in return. She smiled as she followed them into the classroom.

'What have I unleashed,' Jennifer thought.

Later that afternoon, Quinn rang the Hecuba's doorbell. She was slightly tired from walking two blocks from where Kristen's sister Kelly had dropped her off, whilst carrying her class notes, her laptop and the C++ book. 'Maybe I should take up the offers from Joey, Jeffy and the other one,' she mused.

Andrea opened the door. "Come in," she said.

"I am as ready as I can be!" Quinn said.

"Good," Andrea said as Quinn entered her house.

Jennifer dropped Daria off in front of her house.

"I'll see you at Jane's in the morning," she said.

"See ya," Daria said. She turned to go up the front path as Jennifer drove off. She glanced at her mother's SUV just prior to opening the door. 'This definitely not going to be an enjoyable experience,' she thought.

"What _does _your self-esteem teacher say?" Helen asked as she parked the SUV in the Cranberry Commons parking lot.

"He says I should think back to circumstances that brought me happiness as a child and replicate them... but I suppose Quinn's here to stay," Daria said.

Helen sighed. "Don't let Quinn hear you say that," she said. 'They can't be more opposite if they tried,' she thought.

"Here's a thought. Why don't we go to Pizza Forest for Dinner like when we were younger?"

"Daria, are you sure that Lawndale has a Pizza Forest?"

"Yes, we passed it on the way between Andrea's and the Lawndale Mall yesterday," Daria said.

"I will think about it," Helen said.

Andrea's clock radio hit 5:30, setting off the alarm. Quinn jumped.

"Was that meant to go off?" she asked, scared.

"Time is up!" Andrea said.

"You could have said 'you have until 5:30' rather than setting the alarm!" Quinn said.

"I didn't expect you to take this long," Andrea said.

"Ok," Quinn said. She turned the laptop so that Andrea could see the code.

/ Practice Program C++

Andrea finished reviewing the code. "You get a C- for C++, but I can tell you tried," she said.

"Thanks," Quinn said.

"VBScript tomorrow," Andrea said.

"Cool. I will certainly do better with that," she said.

"Good," Andrea said. 'I will see how she does. She seems like she will be a very good member of the Programming Club,' she thought.

Quinn heard arguing as she opened the door. It seemed that her mom wanted to go out, but that her father wanted to cook. She quietly slipped up the stairs.

After dropping her books, notes and laptop in her room, Quinn knocked on Daria's bedroom door. She could still hear their parents arguing. Daria immediately opened the door. "What do _you_ want?" she asked.

"What are Mom and Dad arguing about, Daria?" she asked. 'Better to ask her than to try to ask them,' she thought.

"I suggested to Mom that we go to Pizza Forest for Dinner like we used to," Daria said matter of factly.

Quinn had also seen the Lawndale franchise of Pizza Forest near the Mall the previous day. "The place with the _singers! _No wonder they are arguing, Daria. Most of the people hired to be the singers can hardly hold a note!"

Daria was in thought. "I do see where it would be musically blasphemous, but I do miss those songs." Daria said.

'Of course you would,' Quinn thought. She could hear someone come up the stairs.

"Daria, Quinn, I have talked it over with your father, and we will be going to Pizza Forest for dinner," Helen said.

"But, Helen!" came Jake's voice.

"Jake, I told you. It may not be as bad as the Highland franchise," Helen said.

"Gah, I hope not!" he said.

Helen went back down the stairs.

"Great!" Daria said. She smirked and closed the door.

Quinn sighed and walked back to her room.

The Morgendorffers were eating at a booth at Pizza Forest. Daria was clearly enjoying her family's discomfort at the 'singers' attempting to get them to sing along.

Quinn was sitting with her fingers in her ears, only taking them out to take a bite out of the cheeseless pizza, and chewing very slowly. 'No wonder we stopped going,' she thought. It was just as bad as she remembered.

'It is better than the Highland franchise, but only in that the service is better,' Helen thought. She was happy to see Daria enjoying herself. 'If only that enjoyment did not come with the expense of our discomfort.'

Jake was trying to hold his rage in check. 'At least its a lot better than the cafeteria at _Buxton Ridge Military Academy!_' he thought. Anything was better than that horrible place...

"Row, row, row, your boat!" Daria said, smirking. 'That is more like it!' she thought.

**Thursday, September 23. 2005**

Daria and Jennifer entered Jane's room with takeaway breakfast. Jane was watching a tabloid show on the TV.

"_This is just astounding! Here you are, blind, deaf, and barely able to walk, yet you conducted simultaneous affairs with _three_ members of the Royal Family! The question on all of America's mind is: how did you do it_?"

"_What?"_

"You don't get it. It's the Royal Family. You'd _have _to be blind," Jane said as commentary.

"Hi Jane, is that _Sick Sad World_? I was wondering when it was on here," Daria said.

"Hey Amigos," Jane said. "Yeah, its on in the morning, although I have heard that they are going to change it to the afternoon," Jane said.

"Quite an interesting show," Jennifer said.

"Definitely," Daria said. She and Jennifer sat down next to Jane. The scene on the TV had changed to a UFO convention that was being held close to Lawndale.

"_Hi! I'm Artie_."

"_Artie, hello. Tell me, what brought you here, Artie."_

"_It was a cone-shaped craft about 15 feet long, with an air speed of, oh, I'd estimate mach 12. They kidnapped and stripped me, examined me briefly, returned my clothes, and dropped me here._"

"_I see_."

"_They pressed my pants. Did a nice job._"

Daria turned down the TV. "You both know all the answers to the questions on the release test, right?"

"I've got them in my notebook," Jane said.

"I do too," Jennifer said.

"Well, why don't we just take the test this afternoon and get out of the class once and for all?" Daria asked.

"How would I spend my afternoons?" Jane asked. 'I would have more time to paint, that is for sure!' she thought.

"UFO conventions," Daria said. 'I can think of many activities. Not the least of which is exploring what this town has to offer that I would like,' she thought.

"Now you're talking," Jane said.

"Yes!" Jennifer said.

"And so, for tomorrow, I want you to make a list of ten ways the world would be a sadder place if you weren't in it," Mr. O'Niell said as conclusion for that day's session of the Esteem-a-Teen class.

"Oh, Mr. O'Neill, Mr. O'Neill?" 'The Head' asked, waving his hands, trying to get the teacher's attention.

"Yes, um... you."

"Is that if we'd never been born, or if we died suddenly and unexpectedly?"

"'Oh no!' Mr. O'Neill thought. 'I didn't expect that!' he thought for a moment, trying to salvage the situation. "Never been born," he said.

The class started filing out, except for Daria, Jane and Jennifer.

"Yes?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"We want to take the test," Daria said.

"We all want to take the graduation test," Jane said.

Jennifer gave a small smile.

"Well! I'm glad your self-image meter is on the uptick! But there's still three more weeks of class left," Mr O'Neill said. 'They need to stay in the class for the whole time to get everything out of it,' he thought.

"This first week has been a real eye-opener. It must be the way you teach," Daria said.

Mr. O'Neill was flattered. "Oh, well... thank you very much," he said. "You look familiar somehow," he said to Jane and Jennifer.

"So can we take the test?" Jennifer asked.

Mr. O'Neill gave in and gave them the test.

"I don't think we have to go any farther. I am really pleased! I think the whole school needs to hear about this at assembly!" Mr. O'Neill said a few minutes later.

The three teens looked at each other. Their expressions said the same thing. 'Uh, oh!'

Andrea looked at the VBScript code on the screen.

Option Explicit

Set oWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:" & _

"\\.\root\cimv2")

Set myObj = _

("select IPAddress from" & _

"Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration" & _

" where IPEnabled=True")

…

"That is rather good, Quinn," she said. It looked exactly as the flowchart and the pseudocode had laid out. "You can run it now," she said. 'I am certain that there are no errors. I think she corrected them all in that proofreading,' she thought.

Quinn minimised the IDE screen and double clicked the .vbs file. The script ran without error and a drive letter on Quinn's XP system was mapped to one of Andrea's network shares.

"Cool!" Quinn said.

Andrea smiled. 'If she is this good at VBScript...'

"So I delete it now?" Quinn asked, about the connection to the network share.

"No, keep it. All the members of the Programming Club have the connection. Its a common file repository. As long as you are on my network. It's accessable," Andrea said.

"So, if I use a VPN to connect to it, the share is available?" Quinn asked, wondering why Andrea had a share that all of the Programming Club members could access...

"Yes," Andrea said.

'She is up to something. It may be worth joining the Anime Club, afterall,' Quinn thought, as she started closing the programs on the laptop.

**Friday, September 24, 2005**

Quinn entered homeroom carrying the information sheet on the Anime Club. As she had expected the person whom had invited her to join was the President. 'Jenna Schwartz, she's a sophomore. I'll talk to her at recess.'

_.9_

Jenna Schwartz was surprised when Quinn Morgendorffer walked up to her in the corridor.

"Hi, Jenna. I would like to take up your offer to join the Anime Club," Quinn said.

"That would be cool, Quinn. But why did it take so long to decide?" Jenna asked.

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to be in a third club, but I do like Anime so the Anime Club is a good choice. Also, that Andrea is _so _weird," Quinn said.

Jenna chuckled. "She definitely is. Come with me and I will give you a form. Once its filled out, you're in," she said.

"Cool," she said.

Unknown to Quinn and Jenna, Stacy Rowe had overheard them from her locker. 'The Anime Club. If Sandi wasn't such a hardcase about things, I would have joined a few weeks ago,' she thought. She closed her locker and headed to the bathroom where Sandi and Tiffany were waiting for her.

The end of week school assembly was in progress.

"And once again, the bake sale was a tremendous success. We raised more than $400, which was subsequently stolen from the office, but I am confident we will get that money back. In a related note, the school nurse will be visiting homerooms on Monday to collect DNA samples. Now, Mr. O'Neill has exciting news about our after-school self-esteem class," Principal Angela Li said.

Mr. O'Neill stood and approached the podium.

"This is really going to help me gradually ease into student life," Daria said, sarcastically.

"Usually when I have this dream I'm wearing pink taffeta," Jane commented.

"I always wanted to be on assembly. Not!" Jennifer said.

"Thank you. You know, self-esteem is a little like your car's brake fluid. You may not even know you're low on it until, one day, you go to shift gears and nothing happens," Mr. O'Neill said.

"That's transmission fluid!" One of the students in the audience yelled.

"That's... what I said," Mr. O'Neill said, trying to cover his mistake. "Anyway, I'd like you to meet three students who have completed our self-esteem course faster than anyone ever before! Please join me in congratulations as I present these certificates of self-esteem to... Daria Morgendorffer, Jane Lane and Jennifer Burns."

There was some applause from the audience, but not much.

"Oh, what the hell," Jane muttered as she stepped up to the podium. "I just want to say how proud I am today. Knowing that I have self-esteem gives me even more self-esteem." She paused, looked at Daria and Jennifer and smirked. "On the other hand, having all of you know that I had low self-esteem makes me feel... kind of bad... like a big failure or something..." she said histronically.

Most of the audience began to laugh at Jane's behaviour.

"I, uh, I want to go home!" Jane said, as she let out an exaggerated sob and ran off the stage.

"Jennifer, wait!" Mr. O'Neill called out as he ran after Jane.

'That's Ms. Lane, not Ms. Burns!' Ms. Li thought, she knew that Jane was faking it even if her head Language Arts teacher didn't!

Jennifer stepped up to the podium with trepidation. There was a reason why Jodie always read the reports for the Computer Club at assemblies.

"Thank you. I am happy to have high self-esteem rather than low self-esteem. I feel I can better contribute. Thanks again," she said. She walked away from the podium and breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at the audience.

She could see Jodie, Mack, Quinn, Kristen, Cindy, a few other friends, members of the Computer Club and a few others clapping. She smiled as she went back to her seat.

Daria stepped up to the podium. "No one can battle a terrible problem like low self-esteem on their own. It takes good coaching... "

In the audience, Sandi was sitting boredly between two boys. 'This is stupid!' she thought.

"Who cares about these losers?" one of them said.

"Hey, beats algebra, though, doesn't it?" the other, Corey Bateman said. He then high-fived his friend over the top of Sandi's head.

"Hey!" she snapped.

"Oops," the other said.

"Did you hear what I said, Sandi? I said, like, who cares how bad this is - it's still better than algebra!" Corey said.

"I, like, heard you the first time, Corey. I't's not funny!" Sandi said forcefully. 'Of course its better than algebra!' she thought.

"Ok," Corey said, leaning slightly away from Sandi.

Daria was still talking "...realize my actuality. Winning the fight against low self-esteem takes support... from teachers, from friends, and most of all, from family,"

"Is that loser still talking?" Corey asked. He was about to high-five his friend again, when Sandi glared at him. "Eep!" He leaned further away from Sandi, brushing against Stacy.

"And so, the one person I'd like to thank more than any other is my very own _overachiever _sister, Quinn Morgendorffer..."

Quinn was aghast. "Overachiever!" she exclamed. At Kristen's look she added. "Overachiever! She's the one with the _Straight A's_! I have at best a B+ average," she said, with a hint of jealousy.

"Maybe it's the extracurriculars?" Cindy asked.

"That would look like overachieving if she doesn't have any," Kristen said.

"I'm not sure," Quinn said.

"Quinn has forgotten more about self-esteem than I'll ever know. Are you out there, _sis_? Stand up and let me thank you," Daria said, smirking.

"She just wants to _embarrass_ me," Quinn said.

"I guess," Cindy said.

"Obviously," Kristen said.

"That moussy brain is Quinn's sister?" Corey asked, mostly to himself. 'How is it that they're nothing alike in personality?' he wondered.

With a calculating look in her eyes, Sandi said, "Yes, there is like, too much of a resemblance for it to be otherwise."

"Yeah," Corey said.

"Not only is Quinn a geek, she is also a brain!" Sandi said. 'And so the seed is, like planted,' she thought.

Stacy observed the conversation between Sandi and Corey with trepidation. 'She can be _so_ manipulative!, she thought.

Daria soon finished.

Ms. Li took the podium "Thank you, Ms. Morgendorffer for that inspirational speech. Now remember single file when exiting the auditorium."

Quinn walked to Andrea's thinking about Daria embarrassing her during the assembly. She and Daria were always at each other's throats, sometimes literally. 'She is a misanthropic jerk! And I am sure that she think's of me in similar terms. At least we aren't like Mom and Aunt Rita,' she thought.

As she approached the creepy house she saw that Andrea was waiting for her. She looked at her watch. It read 4:04 pm. 'Punctuality not found,' she thought as she came up to the front of the Hecuba's property.

"You're late," Andrea said pointedly.

"I thought I would walk. I needed time to think what happened during assembly," Quinn said.

"If I had a sibling and they embarrassed me like that, I wouldn't talk to them for quite a while," Andrea said, as she lead the way inside.

'You don't know Daria.'

Helen stopped the SUV in front of the Hecuba's house. "That's the house where she has been spending her afternoons?" Jake asked.

"Yes Jake, wait here, then we're going to the UFO convention," Helen said as she got out.

'Oh my, no wonder Quinn said that this place is creepy,' she thought as she walked up the path. She hoped that creepiness did not extend to the people who lived there.

_.a_

"You get a B+ for Perl," Andrea said to Quinn.

"Cool!" Quinn said.

There was a few knocks on the bedroom door and Andrea's mother could be heard saying "Andrea, Quinn's mother is here to pick her up."

"Let her in," Andrea said tersely.

A few moments later Helen opened the door. "Oh my, this is worse than Daria's room," she said, taking in the dark décor.

Andrea raised an eyebrow 'I guess Daria may be a closet Goth,' she thought.

"Mo-om, why are you picking me up?" Quinn asked.

"We are going to visit the UFO convention tonight," Helen said.

Quinn sighed, as she shut her laptop. "It was Daria's idea, wasn't it,"

"Yes, to celebrate her getting out of the self-esteem class early," Helen said.

"Mom, she used her speech to embarrass me," Quinn said.

"That's nothing new."

"She called me an overachiever!"

Andrea backed off, not wishing to get caught up in the Morgendorffer family's drama. 'I have enough of that with my own family,' she thought.

"Quinn, she may have straight A's but she doesn't have any extracurricular activities," Helen said.

"I suppose," Quinn said, thinking.

Andrea cleared her throat.

"Oh! Sorry for this family discussion in your room..." Helen said, pausing, not sure of Andrea's name.

"Andrea."

"Would you like to come over to our place to test Quinn next week?" Helen asked.

"I will think about it," Andrea said.

"Right," Helen said.

"Bye, Andrea," Quinn said.

10 minutes later the Morgendorffers had arrived at the UFO convention.

'This is _so_ weird!" Quinn thought after they checked in. A lot of the exhibits exuded a creepiness at a similar level to that of Andrea's house. Of course some of them were even creepier.

"Let's go get our picture taken with the cardboard alien," Daria suggested. She lead Helen and Jake towards the cardboard alien in question.

"Uh... sure, honey. Whatever you want," Jake said.

'I don't particularly want to have my picture taken with a creepy looking cardboard alien,' Quinn thought as she stayed where she was.

"Quinn?" Helen asked.

"I'll wait here," Quinn said.

"OK, We'll be right back," Jake said.

Quinn looked around, for a few seconds before someone walked up to her.

"Hi! I'm Artie. You're cool," he said.

That was the last straw... "Mom! Dad! You guys, wait up!" Quinn said. She then went after her 3 immediate family members. 'So this is how my first week in Lawndale ends?' she thought.

_Daria__ belongs to MTV (which is part of Viacom, which in turn is part of CBS),_ _some dialogue from __Esteemsters__ by Glenn Eichler_.


	2. Invite of the Geek

Page 30 of 30

**Quinn's Code (A Daria AU)**

**Story 2: Invite of the Geek**

**Lawndale, D-1337**

**Wednesday, October 6, 2005**

Two teen sisters were walking to school in the early morning light. The younger of the two (with pixie-length red hair and wearing a 'cute' pink shirt with the logo of _The Matrix_ emblazoned on the front and blue jeans) was walking ahead in agitation. She turned to her sister. "Stop following me, Daria!" She said. She walked on but she could tell that her misanthropic sister was still following her. "You're still following me!"

A contrast to her geeky, yet popular, sister; (with her 'manstopper' glasses, green jacket, mustard-colored t-shirt, black pleated skirt and large boots) Daria Morgendorffer shook her head, causing her long (mostly) auburn hair to blow about in the wind. "We go to the same school," she said, in a near monotone.

Quinn shook her head. "That doesn't mean we have to go along the same route!" she shouted. 'She could be walking with Jane or catching a lift with Jennifer!' she thought. She then saw three of the boys whom also went to Lawndale High approaching.

"Hey, Quinn, can I carry your books?" Joey Green asked.

"Hey, Quinn, can I carry your laptop?" Jeffy Brown asked.

"Hey, Quinn, can I carry your... uh... got anything else?" Jamie White asked.

'I could get used to this, and it has to get to Daria,' Quinn thought. She took a clip out of her hair and handed it to Jamie. "You can carry this hairclip," she said.

"Great!" Jamie said.

.1

"Careful, don't hurt yourself with that clip! Or with that laptop!" Daria said as she left the vicinity of her sister and her admirers. 'This is something I can write about,' she thought as she looked prior to crossing the street.

.2

"Is that your sister?" Jamie asked.

"It is, Jeremy," Quinn said, with a sigh.

"I'm _Jamie_." It seemed that no one at Lawndale High could remember his name. 'It was like that all through Middle School too!' he thought.

.3

At recess, Jamie and his friends approached their teammates Kevin Thompson (the quarterback) and Michael 'Mack' Mackenzie.

Kevin was saying "Now I remember! The party's to celebrate her parents being out of town."

"Hey, Joey, Jeffy, Jeremy."

"I'm _Jamie_," he said. 'What is it with people calling me Jeremy today. First Quinn and now the idiot junior-varsity QB!'

"Whatever. You going to Brittany's party?" Kevin asked.

"Uh, if we're invited," Joey said, as Quinn approached.

"You're on the team, dudes. When a cheerleader has a party, all the football players are automatically invited," Kevin said.

"It's on page six of the play book," Mack said with a sarcastic tone, whilst marveling at the sillyness of the high school social order and the rituals it entailed.

Mack's sarcasm went over the top of Kevin's head, as usual. "Really?" he asked. He turned to Quinn. "Hey, Quinn, what about you?"

"You want me to go to your girlfriend's party?" she asked.

"Sure!" Kevin said, unfazed.

"Sure," Quinn said. 'My first real party in Lawndale! I hope it doesn't get as rough as those in Highland!'

Joey, Jeffy and Jamie fell over themselves trying to ask Quinn out to the party...

_.4_

"...and so he invited me to Brittany's party. Is that weird or what?" Quinn asked her friends at lunch.

"You don't know Kevin. That is rather par for the course for him," Cindy Robinson said.

"It is still a bit weird though. It is not often that a new kid is invited to a cheerleader's party," Kristen Bell said.

"Well, I am curious as to how a party in Lawndale would go," Quinn admitted.

"Would you bring me with?" Kristen asked.

"I would consider it," Quinn said.

"That would be cool," Kristen said.

"It would be her first High School party," Cindy said.

"Really?" Quinn asked, incredulous.

"My first party since the summer, anyway," Kristen said. "I was invited to one or two high schooler parties in eighth grade."

"Ok," Quinn said, smiling.

"I would like to go also," Cindy said.

"I will see what I can do," Quinn said.

"You're going to ask Brittany?" Kristen asked.

"Maybe," Quinn said, thinking.

_.6_

Quinn approached Jennifer Burns as the latter exited her maths class. "Hi Quinn, how was today?" Jennifer asked.

"Mostly cool, but Kevin invited me to Brittany's party this weekend. That is so weird," Quinn said.

"That's strange," Jennifer said.

"Yeah," Quinn said.

"That's not what I meant," Jennifer said, with a quizzical look on her face.

"Oh?"

"I mean, Kevin invites you to Brittany's party, while Brittany invites Daria to her party."

"Why would Brittany do that? I mean, the only people that Daria likes are you and Jane," Quinn said, wondering (more at why Brittany was inviting Daria to anything more than anything else).

"Daria said that she helped Brittany with One-Point Perspective in art class, and that Brittany had invited her as a favour," Jennifer explained.

'That explains it,' Quinn thought. Something else intrigued her though. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," Jennifer said.

"No, I mean Brittany needed help with One Point Perspective?"

"Yeah,"

"I wonder how she got out of elementary school?" Quinn asked.

"You and me both," Jennifer said with a slight laugh.

"Anyway, there is still the fact that Kevin invited me, and now Cindy and Kristen want me to get them in too," Quinn said.

Jennifer was in thought. "You have to figure that one out yourself," she said.

"Yeah," Quinn said.

.7

In Quinn's 'hacker cave' of a room, Andrea Hecuba looked at the Javascript code on the screen as Quinn typed. "You want my opinion on what to do?" she asked.

"Of course," Quinn said, as she continued typing.

"Just sneak them in," Andrea said.

"Huh?" Quinn was confused.

"Brittany will be focused on the party. She won't notice two people whom she didn't invite," Andrea said.

"How do you know that?" Quinn asked, she knew that Brittany and Andrea didn't hang out.

"We were friends in Elementary School," Andrea said, with some bitterness; "two rough and tumble tomboys having fun."

"Rough? Brittany seems nice," Quinn commented.

"Not as rough as I was," Andrea said, with a tone of lamenting regret.

Quinn could hear the regret in Andrea's voice. "What happened?" she asked.

"A long story," Andrea said, flatly, reminding Quinn of her sister.

**7 years earlier**

_Nine year old Andrea and Brittany, dressed in boys clothes, were playing with Lego in Brittany's bedroom. They stopped as they heard Brittany's mother, Vivian, yelling at her father, Steve_.

"It is happening again!" Brittany said, twirling a finger in her short, blonde hair.

"Do you know why she is yelling at him?" Andrea asked, as she nervously ran a hand through her mid-length, dark brown hair.

"She says that he needs to be at home at night every night, or something," Brittany said. Andrea could hear the certainty that Brittany felt that her mother wasn't telling the whole truth. Brittany leaned against the bedroom door to listen. Andrea also leaned next to the door, next to her friend, to offer support if required.

_They winced as they heard a door being slammed downstairs_.

**End of Flashback**

Quinn typed slowly, waiting for Andrea to speak after saying "A long story."

A minute passed.

"Sorry," Quinn said. 'Must be rather unpleasant memories,' she thought.

Andrea snapped out of her__reminiscence. "Right," she said.

"You were saying that Brittany won't notice Cindy and Kristen?" Quinn asked.

"She won't. You can just sneak them in," Andrea said.

"Ok," Quinn said, thinking.

_ .8_

It was a usual Morgendorffer dinner. Jake was reading the paper (the _Lawndale Sun-Herald_), Daria was reading the book she had purchased on the life of Mozart 2 weeks previously (she was almost finished), Quinn was reading a game guide (the game in question being a RPG on the X-Box) and Helen was wondering if there would ever be any family interaction at dinner. "Did anything interesting happen at school today?" she asked.

Quinn put the game guide down. "I was invited to a party this weekend," she said.

"A party, where?" Helen asked.

"Brittany Taylor's. Actually it was her boyfriend who invited me," Quinn said.

"That's fascinating!" Helen said.

"Yeah. My first party in Lawndale!" Quinn said.

Helen turned to Daria. "Have you heard of this?" she asked.

"Brittany invited me, I haven't decided if I am going to go or not," Daria said.

"You can't go, you will _embarrass _me," Quinn said.

"_Touch__é_," Daria said.

"You should ground her because..." Quinn said. She groped for a reason; "her room is a mess!"

Helen looked at Quinn, knowing that her 'hacker cave' was as messy as her sister's unusual room.

"If I go down for that one, I'm taking _you_ with me!" Daria said.

Helen sighed. Before Quinn could come up with a retort she said; "I think it's great that you two are going to be spending time together. Dad and I would be happy to drive you to the party and pick you up."

"No!" the sisters said in unison.

"There are another two days of school before then, I'll find a way to get there," Quinn said, she finished her vegitarian lasagna and left the kitchen nook.

Once Quinn was gone, Helen said; "Daria, I would like it if you would keep an eye on Quinn at this party."

Daria looked at her mother "As if!" she said.

Helen sighed. "She doesn't have to know about it, Daria!" she said.

Daria ignored her mother, as she chewed on the tasteless lagagna.

"Daria, answer me!" Helen demanded.

"I don't know what I _did_, but it couldn't have been _that_ bad," Daria said.

"I just want you to keep an _eye_ on her," Helen said.

"Is this a way of acknowledging how much more trustworthy I am?" Daria asked.

"It's my way of saying that if you _don't_ do it, I'm sending both of you with a babysitter."

"I'll take that as a ringing declaration of parental approval," Daria said, in her customary monotone, she then finished her lasagne and left the kitchen nook.

Helen sighed.

**Thursday, October 7, 2005**

Daria arrived at Casa Lane. She could see Jennifer's Beetle parked behind Trent's Satellite. 'I see that Jennifer takes better care of her car than Trent does,' she thought as she passed the unusual lawn ornament. She knocked on the door. Jane answered it. "Hi, Daria, come in," she said.

_.9_

Jennifer had brought Jane some takeaway breakfast, as the Lane fridge and cupboards were rather empty (It seemed that Trent hardly did any grocery shopping).

"So, Brittany invited you to the party?" Jennifer asked, as she took a bite out of a muffin.

"Yeah," Daria said. "And Kevin invited Quinn, as I am sure you have heard," she continued.

"You are not thinking of going, are you?" Jane asked.

"My Mom has roped me in as a babysitter, Now I _have_ to go," Daria said.

"Ouch," Jennifer said. 'About as bad as having to babysit my cousins in middle school," she thought.

"Bummer!" Jane exclaimed.

"I don't want to go with Quinn alone," Daria said.

"You want us to come with you?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes," Daria said.

"Someone has to ensure that you don't embarrass Quinn too much, I guess. I'll come." Jennifer said, shyly. She _really _did not like parties. "But how are we going to get past the guards?"

"Actually, I have some life drawings that may come in handy," Jane contributed.

"You did life drawings?" Daria asked.

"Last summer," Jane answered.

"Interesting," Jennifer said.

"There is time before school. You want to have a look?"

"Sure," Daria said.

"Your art always gives me a laugh," Jennifer said.

"Cool," Jane said, as she stood up. 'All this time, and she never told me,' she thought.

_.a_

Soon the 3 teens were in Jane's room, leafing through the sketchbook. "These are really good," Daria said.

"Thanks. I do have talent. It runs in the family," Jane said. Suddenly the house was shaken by loud discordant music from the basement. "Ok, most of the family," she conceded, as her brother Trent continued to rock the house at its foundations.

'Must be a new song,' Jennifer thought. She didn't recognise the (rather vague) tune.

"Ok," Daria said, she glanced at the page she had stopped at. The picture described by the lines looked _unnatural_. "You're really bursting out of the picture plane here," she said.

Jennifer briefly looked at the picture. Her eyes opened with with shock before she looked away. 'That's just wrong,' she thought.

"Oh, yeah. That particular model was _quite_ bursty. I think she had her bursts done," Jane said. There was another jarring burst of rock/metal music from the basement. "Sounds like all of Mystik Spiral rather than just Trent," she mused.

Jennifer nodded in agreement.

"Mystik Spiral?" Daria asked. 'Sounds like the name for a Doors cover band, rather than whatever they are attempting to be,' she thought.

"That's Trent's band. I could introduce you to them," Jane offered.

Daria thought about it. "As much as I would like to meet your brother, we need to get to school," she said.

Jane looked at the time. "You're right. You will have to meet Trent another time," she said, wistfully.

Jennifer looked at Daria meaningfully. Daria sighed. Jane chuckled. Soon the 3 teens were on their way out of the house, on their way to school.

_.b_

Andrea looked at the iMac screen as Quinn's AppleScript script finished running. She sat down on the robin's-egg-blue bed, next to one of Quinn's stuffed animals. "I must admitt that I was sceptical when I saw that you listed AppleScript on your application, Quinn." she said.

"Like I would have a Mac, and not use it?" Quinn asked.

Andrea scoffed at that. "Why have a Mac at all?"

"Apple does make programs that are interesting, and their hardware designs are _cute_, especially the iMac, second to the iPod. Anyhow, OS X is a good operating system, especially the 'Tiger' release," Quinn said.

'Of course she would think that the iMac is cute. This room just screams 'cute'. It says 'Hackers can be cute,' Andrea thought, as she looked around the room that was half 'hacker cave' and half 'typical popular 00's teen girl. It couldn't be more different to her own room if it tried. She stood up as she looked at a _Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex _poster. "I suppose so," she said.

Quinn could see that Andrea was distracted, looking around her room. She wondered if it had to do with what she had said the previous day. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Andrea said, flatly.

"Ok, So what is the AppleScript score?" Quinn asked. 'Even if it's abysmal, it is worth finding out,' she thought.

"B+," Andrea said as she produced a form.

Quinn took the form and placed it between the iMac and one of her desktop PCs. She saw that Andrea had filled it out. 'Of course she would,' she thought as she signed it. She handed it back to Andrea.

"You are now a full member of the Programming Club, though you can hand the form in yourself," Andrea said, handing the form back.

"Cool!" Quinn said as she placed the form in her laptop case.

"I would do it first thing," Andrea said.

"Why?"

"Best to do it that way," Andrea said, enigmatically.

"Ok," Quinn said. 'What is she up to?' she pondered, not for the first time.

_.c_

**Friday, October 8, 2005**

Before homeroom, Quinn entered the office. "Hi, how may I help you?" the receptionist asked.

"Hi, I am handing in this club membership application," Quinn said, as she handed over the Programming Club Full Membership application.

"A third club, Ms Morgendorffer? Ms. Li would be thrilled to hear that," the receptionist said.

"She would?" Quinn asked, wondering why the Principal would be interested in her student's activities.

"Yes. Less than ten percent of the the Lawndale High student body has more than two extracurricular activities."

"Why would she be worried about that?" Quinn asked, still curious.

"The Principal is of the opinion that one can never have too much school spirit." the receptionist said as she typed.

Quinn thought, that certainly jived with what she knew of the principal so far. "That makes sense, what with the way she pronounces the school's name and all."

"That's it, done. You are now a full member of the Programming Club, as well as the Computer Club and the Anime Club."

"Cool," Quinn said, as she left.

_.d_

At lunch, Quinn sat with Cindy. "Where's Kristen?" she asked.

Cindy looked at Quinn "I'm not sure," she said.

Just then Kristen came up to the table, carrying her lunch and talking on her cell phone. "Thanks, that's great. It's a great help." A pause, then. "You too, bro, bye," she said. She turned to Cindy and Quinn. "All settled, Keith will be able to drive us to Crewe Neck's main checkpoint tomorrow night." She said, as she sat down.

Cindy considered this "But what about afterwards?" she asked.

"We still have to figure that out," Kristen said.

"Many people will be going. It probably will be safe to walk back into Lawndale proper, right?" Quinn wondered.

"That's an option," Kristen said.

"If they're all leaving at the same time, perhaps," Cindy pointed out.

"Like that's going to be an issue," Quinn said.

"True," Kristen stated. It was likely that most of the people going would leave at the same time.

"But what about your sister? Wouldn't she want to leave early?" Cindy asked.

"Not to mention Jennifer. I know she doesn't like going to parties," Kristen said.

"Oh yeah, but Daria will likely have her own transportation lined up. She likes having contingency plans," Quinn said.

"Besides, Jennifer has a car," Cindy said.

"Oh yeah," Kristen said.

They continued their discussion about the party and their plans for it.

**Saturday, October 9, 2005**

Late in the afternoon, Quinn walked along the street, looking for Cindy's house. The street, located approximately halfway between Glen Oaks Lane and the Cranberry Commons Mall, was lined with many nondescript houses. She recalled the house number that Cindy had given her, and the way Cindy had described her house. 'Medium sized house, two thirds the size of mine, brown bricks, green tiles and blue curtains in the windows,' she thought.

She soon found the house, although the name BROLSMA in large letters above the name ROBINSON in smaller letters on the mailbox confused her for a moment. She shrugged and walked up the path.

Cindy answered the door. "Hi Quinn, come in," she said.

Quinn entered. "I found it relatively quickly, though the mailbox was slighly confusing," she said.

Cindy was amused. "Yeah, Brolsma is my father's surname, Robinson's my mother's," she said.

"Ok," Quinn said. 'Morgendorffer sounds cooler than Barksdale, thank goodness,' she thought.

"Kristen and Keith will be here at six, so we have some time to get ready," Cindy said. She looked at Quinn, the ubiquitous laptop case had been replaced by bag of clothes.

"Cool! Lets go see what you have to wear," Quinn said.

"I hope you're not going to go overboard?" Cindy asked, with slight concern as she led Quinn upstairs towards her bedroom.

"Depends on what you call 'overboard'," Quinn said. Cindy held back a sigh.

_.e_

Daria knocked on the Lane front door. A tall lanky young man answered it. "Hi, you must be Daria, Janie is waiting in the kitchen with Jennifer," he said.

"You must be Trent," Daria said, recalling Jane's description of the younger of her two older brothers.

"Yes," Trent said.

'He is handsome. Did I just think that?'

_.f_

Daria walked into the kitchen, blushing. Jane noticed the blush. "I see that you have met my brother," she said.

"Go to hell, Lane," Daria said, with a slight embarrassed tone "How old is he anyway?" she asked.

Jane didn't answer, but Jennifer did "21," she said.

"I'm not even 16 until next month!" Daria said.

"True," Jane admitted. Daria was quite embarrassed. She didn't expect it to be 'crush at first sight'.

"Are you ok?" Jennifer asked.

"I will be," Daria answered.

"Good," Jennifer said.

"So, how are we going to the Party?" Daria asked.

"I'm thinking that Trent can drive us to the Party," Jane said.

"Trent?" Daria asked.

"It can't be that bad," Jane said.

Jennifer held back a sigh. Instead she asked; "Why Trent?"

"Where can we leave your car?" Jane asked.

Jennifer thought for a moment. "Good point," she said.

"What about afterwards?" Daria aked.

Jane shrugged. "We can walk, the area between Crewe Neck and West Lawndale is well lit, and there is very little crime in West Lawndale," Jane said.

"Generally true," Jennifer said, agreeing with Jane.

"So we can walk, or catch a lift with one of the other partygoers," Daria stated.

"Yes, if we must," Jennifer said.

"What about Quinn?" Jane asked.

"She would be making her own arrangements," Daria stated, flatly, though Jennifer was sure that she detected a hint of hostility.

'What is it between those two?' she wondered, not for the first time.

"Ok," Jane said.

The trio continued to talk for a while before going to wake up Trent.

_.g_

Keith pulled his car up in front of the Brolsma/Robinson house.

"We will be ten minutes at most," Kristen said, as she got out.

"Ok," Keith said, as he turned off the engine.

Kristen went towards the house.

_ .h_

The sound of the doorbell resounded as Cindy finished putting on a red dress that she hadn't used since the beginning of the previous summer.

"I told you that you would look great!" Quinn said.

Cindy looked at herself in the mirror yet another time. She did look great. "Thankyou, Quinn. This isn't what I call overboard," she said, and did a pirouette.

"Thanks. I do have great color-sense. You look great, Cindy. Boys will notice you," Quinn said.

"Hopefully, not the wrong sort of boys. Like the football team, or Upchuck," Cindy said.

"I don't think the latter would be there, but Joey, Jeffy and the other one aren't that bad," Quinn said.

"I wouldn't be surprised that Upchuck found a way to get invited," Cindy said.

Quinn's would be reply was interrupted by Cindy's mother announcing Kristen's arrival.

"Hi, Kristen," Quinn said.

"I see you have redecorated since I was last here," Kristen said, taking in the many new posters on the walls.

"Uh, yeah," Cindy said, embarrassed as she stepped in front of one of the many _World of Warcraft_ posters. Quinn glanced at a _Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal_ poster.

"That's ok, I should have visited since last year anyway. You look good in that dress, by the way," Kristen said.

"Thanks, Quinn helped me pick it out," Cindy said.

"Cool," Kristen said.

They talked for another minute before leaving to go the the party.

_.i_

At Casa Lane, Trent walked into the kitchen. "Are you and your friends ready to go, Janie?" he asked.

"Of course we are," Jane said.

"Do you know the way?" Daria asked quietly.

"Um, sure. Crewe Neck, right?" Trent asked.

"Yes, Trent," Jane said.

"Cool," Trent said.

"I'll move my car out of the driveway," Jennifer said.

"No need, I can drive on the lawn," Trent said.

"No, Trent, remember the last time you tried that? You almost hit the scupture, and the mailbox, and almost crashed into the house!" Jane said.

"Actually, that was Jesse," Trent said, in defense.

"Really?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Trent said.

"I'll move the car anyway. Just in case," Jennifer said.

_.j_

15 minutes later, the three teens got out of the ageing Plymouth close to the main Crewe Neck gate/entry.

"Are you sure that you don't want to crash?" Jane asked as she got out.

"A high school party? Please. Don't you think I'm a little mature for that?" Trent asked, prior to Daria and Jennifer getting out.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't," Trent said as he drove away.

"Bye," Daria said.

"Nice Conversational Skills," Jane said.

Jennifer rolled her eyes.

_.k_

They approached the guard house.

"We're here for Brittany Taylor's party." Daria asked.

"Names?" the guard asked.

"Daria Morgendorffer."

The guard checked his clipboard and nodded "Okay, and you two? What are your names?"

"Tiffany," Jane said to the guard. "There's gotta be _one_," she said to Daria and Jennifer in a low voice.

"Tiffany Hodge, Tiffany Duke, Tiffany Fairchild or Tiffany Blum-Deckler?" the guard asked in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Uh? Tiffany Duke?" Jane asked.

"Strike! You're out. I made that one up!" The guard said, triumphantly.

"Oh... she's not on the guest list. She's been hired to draw our portraits. She's very talented," Daria said.

"_Very_ talented," Jennifer said, as an emphasis.

"And your name is Tiffany Duke, huh?" the guard asked.

"What a coincidence!" Jane said.

"These are some of her sketches from art class. They're very _lifelike,_" Jennifer said, handing the sketchbook with the life drawings to the guard.

"Wow, these are pretty hot..." Soon the guard was distracted by the contents of the sketchbook. Daria, Jennifer and Jane then took the opportunity to enter Crewe Neck...

_.l_

5 minutes after Trent had dropped off his sister and her friends, Keith pulled up near the gatehouse. "Here you go," he said.

"Thanks!" Quinn said with enthusiasm.

"See you later, Keith," Cindy said.

"See you tomorrow, bro," Kristen said.

"See ya's," Keith said as he drove off.

They walked up to the gate house.

_.m_

They waited for the guard to come out, for about a minute before they were annoyed at the guard's tardiness.

"Hello? Hello? A group is waiting!" Quinn said, with impatience.

The guard looked up from the life drawing of the 'enhanced' model (the one that was 'quite bursty'). "Oh!" He said. He grabbed the clipboard as he put the notebook down. "Name?" he asked.

"Quinn Morgendorffer, plus two," Quinn said.

"We're the plus two," Cindy said, indicating herself and Kristen.

"There is no indication of a 'Plus two' here!" the guard said.

"It was a last minute change!" Quinn said, with an indignant tone.

"Ok, you can pass," the guard said.

"Thanks!" Quinn said, as she and her friends passed by.

The guard went back inside the guard house and picked up the notebook.

_.n_

As the two groups walked through the up-scale gated community towards the Taylor's mansion, the group of freshmen passed by the group of sophomores. As such, Quinn, Kristen and Cindy arrived at the mansion first.

_.o_

As she entered the house, Quinn saw that Brittany was nowhere to be seen. Instead her fellow cheerleaders Angie Zammit and Nikki Dowling were greeting the guests at the door.

"Welcome to Brittany's first party of the school year," Angie said, with a slightly bored-sounding tone.

"Where everyone has fun!" Nikki enthused.

"Right!" Kristen said. They then entered.

_ .p_

Less than 5 minutes later, Daria, Jennifer and Jane approached the mansion.

"And you say that Brittany's father made his money as a real estate agent?" Daria asked Jennifer.

"Yes, he started out that way, and then went into property. He apparently owns many rental properties. Most of them are in East Lawndale, but there are others scattered around the county," Jennifer said.

"And you know this, how?" Jane asked.

"I pay attention to the newspapers," Jennifer said, as they reached the end of the front driveway of the mansion.

Daria tuned out Angie and Nikki's greetings as they entered.

_.q_

Tori Jericho was doing what she did best at parties, pointing out the popularity levels of other students. She had the rapt attention of Sandi Griffin and (the not so rapt attention of) Tiffany Blum-Deckler. "Now she's really popular, but not as popular as she is. He's medium popular, and he just bought a great car so soon he'll be getting more popular. That guy was just popular enough to be invited, but now he needs to hook up with a girl who's more popular than he is."

Daria, Jane and Jennifer found Brittany with Kevin and Mack in the front loungeroom.

"Hi, Daria, glad that you could make it," Brittany said.

"Um, yeah," Daria said.

"Interesting decorations," Jane said.

"Yeah, my father gets his paintings from a gallery downtown," Brittany said.

"That would be _Gary's_ wouldn't it?" Jennifer asked.

"I'm not sure," Brittany said, as she twirled her hair.

"Hey, Burnout Girl, how did you, like, get in. I know that Britt didn't invite you," Kevin was about to say more, but was interupted by Jennifer.

"Kevin. How many times have I told you that I _hate _that name!" She exclaimed!

"Aahh!" Kevin ran off, Jennifer being angry wasn't pretty.

"Kevvy? Come back!" Brittany said as she ran off.

"Unfortunately, you're stuck with it. Just that I am stuck with **Mack-Daddy**," Mack said.

"I don't have to _like _it," Jennifer siad.

"True," Mack said.

"Now that you've scared off the hostess, will you find Quinn and ensure that she doesn't get into trouble?" Daria asked.

"What sort of trouble?" Jennifer said.

"Oh you know, boys chasing her. Ensure that she doesn't encourage them either," Daria said.

"No, Amiga. From what you have told me, I am sure that she can take care of herself. Let's go to a secluded spot and observe the party from there," Jane said.

_.r_

"Wait, Jennifer," Mack said as Daria and Jane went off.

Jennifer told Daria and Jane that she would catch up. "Yes, Mack?" she asked.

"I am sure that you have noticed, something, about the Morgendorffer sisters, given that you are hanging around the two of them?" Mack asked, barely above the background noise.

"Um, sure," Jennifer said, not sure where the conversation was going to head.

"Most of the time when I have heard Daria talk about her sister, and that isn't often, I have heard an undertone of hostility. Do you have any idea what that is about?" Mack asked.

Jennifer thought for a bit. "No idea. Neither of them volunteers anything. I guess that it will remain buried," she said.

"I hope so. I can't imagine feeling the same for my brothers."

"I wouldn't know, given that I am an only child. I am close to my cousins, but that is not the same thing."

"That's True," Mack said.

"I guess that we will have to wait and see," Jennifer said, by way of saying that the conversation was over.

"Yeah," Mack said.

_.s_

"Hey, Quinn," Joey said.

"Hey, Quinn," Jeffy said.

"Hey, Quinn," Jamie said.

"Um, guys? Could you get me and my friends a soda each?" Quinn asked.

"Sure," Jamie said.

"I'll get Quinn, and her friends a soda each!" Joey said.

"No, _I'll_ get Quinn, Kristen and Cindy a soda each!" Jeffy said. The three boistrous jocks then left the vicinity, each trying to out-do the other.

"Did you really have to do that?" Cindy asked.

"Not really, but their competitive-ness is cute," Quinn said.

"I admit, it is intriguing," Kristen said.

_.t_

Then Joey returned with three sodas, with ice in a plate. "I got you three each a drink," he said.

"The ice isn't crushed," Kristen said, guessing that Quinn was about to say that.

"That doesn't matter. You know, Jeffy still sleeps with a teddy bear."

"Crushed ice would be nice," Quinn said.

"I'll go crush some," Joey said. He left, passing Jeffy whom also had three sodas. He offered the three friends some pretzels.

"These aren't twisty," Cindy said as she looked at the pretzels.

"Maybe," Jeffy said, as he thought. "You know, Jamie's a really sloppy kisser."

"What?" Kristen asked while Cindy and Quinn gave him strange looks.

"I heard it from a girl!" Jeffy retorted.

"I would like some twisty pretzels too," Quinn said, as she saw Jamie in the distance.

"I'll go twist some," Jeffy said as he hurried off.

Jamie then approached and gave them a soda each and some round crackers.

"I like square crackers," Quinn said.

Jamie proceed to chew the crackers so tha they were square.

"EEEEWWWWW!" All three friends exclaimed.

_.u_

Daria and Jane were waiting for Jennifer in a secluded corner. "Uh oh," Jane said as she noticed someone approaching.

"What?" Daria asked, noting her friend's tone of near alarm.

"Upchuck. The sleaze-ball of Lawndale High," Jane said, pointing to the new arrival. 'That is all she needs to know for now,' she thought.

Daria recognised him from several of her classes. She recalled that all the girls tried to sit as far away from him as they could.

Upchuck' moved in on the two loners. "Chuck Ruttheimer here. And You are?" he asked, although he knew who Jane was.

"Jane."

"Esmerelda," Daria said, thinking that to tell this _creep_ her real name right away wouldn't be a good idea.

"A pleasure to meet you _lovely_ ladies. I'll be your social director for the evening," Upchuck said. He gestured at the surrounding opulance. "Would you like a tour of the house? It's free." Sleaze dripped from every word.

"We have to wait for a friend," Daria said.

"A friend of the female persuasion, perhaps?" Upchuck asked.

Neither Daria nor Jane answered his question.

"_Feisty!_"

_.v_

Jennifer approached Daria and Jane with sodas and various acoutrements of food. She noticed Upchuck near them and nearly dropped the plate with shock.

She walked up to the situation slowly.

"Well, if it isn't the _mysterious_ Ms Burns!" Upchuck said, his ultra-suave sleaziness at maximum intensity.

"Hi!" Jennifer barely let out.

"He is offering us a tour of the house," Daria said.

"Um, ok," Jennifer said. Anything would be better than staying in the main part of the party, even if it was in the presence of that sleaze-ball.

_.w_

Tori was continuing her popularity assessment of various party-goers. She pointed Quinn out. "She was new and cute so she became, like, popular overnight. Everyone seems to ignore the fact that she is a self proclaimed geek, like seriously!" she was about to say more about that topic, but was interuppted by Sandi.

"Tell me about it! I like, tried to tell people that geeks should not be popular! But they didn't listen!" Sandi said.

'So that was true afterall,' Tori thought. "Yeah, I heard about that. That took guts!" she said.

"Thank you. Anyway, everyone supported Quinn being popular. I even, like, offered her a vice-presidency in the Fashion Club. She turned it down!"

"Really?" Tori asked.

"Yes," Sandi said, she then had a thought. "You know, Tori, that Vice-President position is still open."

"Really?" Tori asked, while in thought.

"Yes. You can, like, help me with my plan for the destruction of that geek's popularity," Sandi said.

Tori didn't hesitate. "I'm in."

Sandi shook her hand. "Welcome to the Fashion Club, Tori Jericho."

Something about Sandi's demeanor unnerved Tori. 'What have I just gotten myself into?' she wondered.

_.y_

Whilst this discussion was going on Charles had began to lead the antisocial trio through the house.

"This five-bedroom house is designed in a combination of southern pseudo-plantation and late mock-Tudor styles. To your right, the quasi-Victorian breakfast nook. Straight ahead, the family den, which was inspired by the novels of Isak Dinesen."

'Good thing that he knows about said Danish writer," Jennifer thought. They walked up to the lawndry room door.

"And this... is the make-out room! Am I blushing? Confidentially, it's really the laundry room," Upchuck said, as he knocked on the door.

"_Can it, Upchuck, or I'll break your face_," came the reply of a member of the football team from the other side of the door.

This was followed by a fit of feminine giggling.

"As we've reached the end of our tour, I'd like to thank you for your undivided attention. Any questions?" Upchuck asked.

"How did you get invited?" Daria asked, assuming that Upchuck didn't just crash the party like Jane, Jennifer, Kristen and Cindy did.

"I dissected her frog," Upchuck said.

"That would do it," Jennifer mused.

_.z_

Quinn, Kristen and Cindy walked up to Brittany, whom was still looking for Kevin after the latter had run away from Jennifer.

"Hey, Brittany. Is there like, going to be any dancing. One can't have a party without dancing!" Kristen said.

Brittany thought whilst twirling her hair and looking vacant. "I didn't think of that," she said.

"Is there going to be any?" Cindy asked.

"Not sure. I will have to get Ashley-Amber's dance CDs out."

"Ashley-Amber?" Quinn asked.

"My Stepmom," Brittany said. "I'll be right back," she said.

"I guess we should have told you about that," Kristen said.

"Yeah, she could have been Brittany's older sister, or her cousin or something like that," Quinn said.

"True," Cindy said.

_.10_

Jennifer, Daria and Jane were still hanging around near the Laundry room, after Upchuck had left them (chasing after either Angie, Nikki or their friend Lisa).

Jane noticed some boys, one of them with his head appearing to be larger than natural proportions would allow, looking at them. She notified the other two of that fact.

"Don't they know we're from two different worlds? Regular and Popular?" Daria asked.

'Good one, Daria,' Jennifer thought with a small smile.

"The one in the green shirt is cute... In a head-too-big-for-his-body kind of way," Jane said.

Daria looked at Jane in disbelief

"I don't think so," Jennifer whispered.

"I hate you," Jane said to Daria in a non-serious way. She didn't hear what Jennifer said, but she assumed that she sided with Daria.

"Hey. Partying hard or hardly partying?" one of them asked.

'That's really bad,' Jennifer thought.

It seemed that Daria agreed with her. "Hardly Interested," she said.

"So, where have you girls been all our lives?" the one with the large head asked.

"Waiting here for you. We were born in this room, we grew up in this room, and we thought that we would die here... alone. But now _you've_ arrived, and our lives can truly begin," Daria said, each word dripping with sarcasm.

"She likes you," the one with the large head said, as he nudged one of his friends.

'Wow. She sure can handle them,' Jennifer thought.

"Isn't that Quinn?" Jane asked, pointing.

Daria looked over. Indeed she saw Quinn, with her friends Kristen and Cindy amongst a group of ceramic tigers. She waved. "Yoo-hoo! Sis!" she shouted.

_.11_

"Isn't that Daria?" Kristen asked, when she noticed Daria waving and shouting.

"What is she doing?" Cindy asked.

"Ooh! Turning the _embarrassment_ factor up to _eleven_!" Quinn exclaimed. 'Of course she would do something like that!' she thought.

"That would be embarrassing!" Kristen, sure that Kelly would be doing something similar if she had wanted to crash the party.

"Let's go somewhere where she can't see us," Cindy suggested.

_.12_

Brittany was in one of the upstairs rooms looking at Ashley-Amber's collection of 'dance' CDs.

'_Songs of the Moulin Rouge. _Sounds interesting,' she thought.

"Babe? What are you, like, looking for?" Kevin asked.

Brittany jumped. "Kevvy! Were you _hiding_ in here?"

"Yeah. Burnout Girl was, like rather scary," Kevin said.

"Kevvy! If you didn't call her that to her face, she wouldn't have been 'scary'," Brittany said. She turned back to the CDs. She thought of using the example of Mack not liking to be called Mack-Daddy, but she decided to keep things simple. 'He has been calling him that for years, and still doesn't understand that he doesn't like it,' she thought.

"Oh, What were you looking for again?" Kevin asked.

"Party music," Brittany said.

"Oh," Kevin said.

"_Exotic dance music_. I don't think so," Brittany said. That topic didn't seem appropriate for a teen party.

"Hey Babe? What about this one?" Kevin asked, holding up a copy of _Heffner's 34 Favourite Songs._

Brittany glanced at the explict image on the cover. "Kevvy! Put that back. There is nothing _suitable _ here. I am sure that I have a copy of _Oops, I Did it Again_ somewhere." She headed towards the door.

"Not that Spears chick, Babe!" Kevin exclaimed.

Brittany just glared at her boyfriend.

"You have any Aguilera?" Kevin asked.

"Maybe," Brittany said.

_.13_

After Quinn and her friends had retreated from her embarrassing calling out, Daria turned back to her friends. But Jane had gone, only Jennifer was there.

"Where's Jane?" she asked.

"She went off to the Laundry room with the big-headed dude. I think his name is Bobby," Jennifer said.

"Interesting," Daria said. 'Have fun, but not too much fun,' she thought, with a Mona Lisa smile on her face.

_.14_

At the gate house, the security guard had continued to pore over Jane's life drawings. Finally he couldn't stand it any longer. "I gotta take this class. I've got to find Tiffany," he said. He turned over the sketchbook and saw Jane's name written there. "I mean... Jane." 'Why did she have to lie about her name?'

He deserted his post and headed towards the Taylor's mansion.

Unfortunately, several bored Lawndale State students (and one of their High school aged friends), whom had taken to driving around Lawndale's boondocks, saw him desert the gatehouse and head deeper into the gated estate. They had heard about Brittany's party on the grapevine (mostly via MySpace) thus they decided to crash it. They drove around the lowered wooden gate, onto the lawn, and back onto the street. "Woo-hoo!"

"Party!"

They called more of their friends...

_.15_

Brittany came to Cindy, Quinn and Kristen in the Breakfast-nook. "I'm sorry. All I could find was recent pop music. That's just for listening to," she said.

"I guess that will have to do," Kristen said.

"Sure," Brittany said, as she put the music on.

Kristen started dancing. "This is actually a good beat," she said.

"Yeah," Cindy said. She and Quinn joined her.

_.16_

The now expanded Fashion Club (minus Stacy, whom hadn't been invited) looked on the trio of geeks dancing. "That is abominable!" Sandi proclaimed.

'The hide of her!' Kristen thought as she looked at Sandi "Have you done any dance lessons?" she asked.

"Well, no," Sandi admitted.

"Then you have no right to say that our dancing is abominable!" Kristen said. 'That should make her think!'

"You mean that you have?" Tori asked.

"Of course," Kristen said. She grabbed the approaching Joey and began to waltz with him. He was so shocked that it took about 15 seconds for him to respond.

"Woa, Kristen. That was unexpected," he said. There was a time when he thought Kristen was pretty, but then she went goth. 'She's still pretty, but she has nothing on Quinn,' he thought.

Jeffy and Jamie took advantage of Joey's distraction to try to dance with Quinn.

"Guys! One at a time!" Quinn exclaimed.

"I'll dance wth you, Quinn!" Jeffy said.

"No, Jeffy. I will dance with Quinn!" Jamie said.

"I said it first!" Jeffy said.

"I saw her first!" Jamie said.

"Guys!" Quinn exclaimed.

_.17_

Sandi couldn't stand the sight of two of the Three Js fighting over wanting to dance with the Geekendorffer. She spun around and walked off in a huff.

Tori glanced back before following her. 'Looks like the Three Js all have a crush on her. I guess that means that their popularity is going to go down if hers does,' she thought.

_.18_

Joey was still talking to Kristen and Jeffy and Jamie were still fighting over was going to dance with Quinn. Cindy decided to intervene. She grabbed Jamie and spun him around in a flamenco move.

"I guess you took dance lessons too?" he said.

"Yes, Johny, I did," Cindy said.

'Of course she has to get my name wrong, like everyone else,' Jamie thought. He and Cindy then danced to the beat.

_.19_

Angie walked into the living room with a CD. She showed it to Brittany. "I found this in one of your father's shelves in the Rec Room. This is a lot better than the music that is playing now. You just have to know where to look," she said.

"Thanks, Angie!" Brittany said. She went and changed the CDs over. The change in the mood was instantaneous.

_.1a_

"This music is a lot better!" Kristen said.

"Definitely! But I think I saw Upchuck somewhere!" Cindy said.

"You're probably imagining things," Kristen said, as she grooved with Joey.

"Don't sweat it, Cindy," Jamie said.

"You're right, Jared. Now lets do some groove-waltzing," Cindy said, wanting to try something new.

"Groove-waltzing?" Jamie said, momentarily overlooking Cindy getting his name wrong again.

"Yeah, a combination of a waltz and grooving, which is what Joey is doing with Kristen," Cindy said.

"Cool," Jamie said, uncertain.

"Don't worry. I'll lead," Cindy said.

Quinn looked at her friends dancing and wondered what it took to dance like that. 'I'll ask if they can teach me at some time,' she thought. Jeffy looked like he was enjoying himself though. 'It's not the dancing that matters, I guess. Its the company.' She didn't know what to think of Jeffy and his friends though. 'I am not ready for a steady boyfriend.'

_.1b_

Daria and Jennifer stood near one of the food tables. She turned to Tori, whom was dancing nearby and said flatly "It's the Soul Train. Beep-beep, get on board."

Jennifer quietly laughed at this.

Daria flashed a Mona Lisa smile in response to Jennifer's laugh.

_.1c_

The carpet around the laundry room door was covered in soap and suds. Then the door opened a crack and Jane peeped out. She saw nobody who would see her exit the room. She then slipped out and looked for Daria and Jennifer.

_.1d_

Jane quickly found her two friends. Jennifer was laughing. She quickly found what she was laughing at. A sock had adhered itself to her shoulder. She picked it up. "Very funny, Jennie," Jane said.

'Jennie' snatched the sock off Jane and handed it to Daria. She didn't much like being called by the diminutive but it was preferable to the name which Kevin had called her by earlier.

"What happened to Bobby Bighead?" Daria asked.

"I wasn't really interested," Jane said, with nonchlance.

Daria noticed that Jane's lipstick was smudged, and stared.

"OK, fine. He thought my head was a _lollipop_. Are you two ready to go?" Jane said, with some resigned irritation.

"I was ready to go before we got here. But I still need to look after Quinn," Daria said.

"I think she is taking care of herself," Jennifer said, looking at Quinn, her two friends and the Three J's dancing. Cindy and Kristen's impromptu dancing had grown more complicated, with Jamie and Joey changing between the two every twenty seconds. Jeffy looked besotted with Quinn and clearly wasn't taking notice of anything else.

Daria looked in that direction. "I guess so," she said. She lead her two friends to the door.

"Leaving already?" Nikki asked.

"Yes. We need to get home early," Jane said.

The trio left the mansion just as the gatecrashing college students pulled up outside (after they had raced around the estate a couple of times). 'looks like we have left just in time,' Daria thought. She knew that Quinn would be able to get away without any trouble. 'Its what she does best.'

_.1e_

The door slammed open as the college students entered the mansion.

"Come on in!" Nikki said oblivious.

They went to the living room, making loud noises over the dance music...

_.1f_

As the boisterous gatecrashers entered the living room, Quinn and Jeffy stopped dancing. "Um, Quinn, it looks like there is going to be some trouble here," Jeffy said.

"You're right. It's about time to leave," Quinn said. Kristen, Cindy, Joey and Jamie also stopped dancing as the gatecrashers proceeded to interrupt dance routines and conversations.

"Time to be going!" Cindy said. 'This is definitely not something I want to be involved in,' she thought.

"I agree," Kristen said. They then began to leave.

Brittany and Angie could be heard yelling at the gatecrashers in the background.

"Why did you have to crash my party!"

As they walked out of the estate, Daria, Jennifer and Jane saw a couple of police cars scream past them towards the party.

"Are you sure that Quinn will be alright?" Jennifer asked. 'I don't want to know why the police would be going there,' she thought.

"She is too savy for that," Daria said.

"So you think that she would be leaving as a result of those college aged crashers?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes," Daria said.

._1g_

Quinn, her friends and the Three Js left the mansion via the back door and went towards the adjacent woods.

"Are you sure its safe?" Joey asked. 'That Metalmouth story involved some woods on the edge of town...'

"It's a _gated estate_, of couse it's safe!" Quinn said.

Cindy looked into the woods. She could see some of the street lights on the other side. "Let's go," she said and lead the group in.

Ten minutes later, they emerged from the woods near the gatehouse, where Daria, Jane and Jennifer were encamped. Daria and Jane were quizzing the estate residents as they arrived home from whatever activites they had attended. Jennifer was looking on with mixed amusement.

"What are they doing?" Quinn asked.

"They are asking the estate residents rather, embarrassing questions. Like old ladies their age," Jennifer explained.

"That's to be expected, I guess," Quinn said, in response. 'At least its better than what she did to those two _things_ back in Highland,' she thought. The group sat down next to Jennifer and waited for the other two to join them.

_.1h_

Sandi, Tiffany and Tori slipped out of the Taylor's mansion whilst the police were talking to Brittany and Kevin.

"This party is a bust. This is a case where, like, it would be better for the parents to be at, rather than not," Sandi said.

"How are we getting home?" Tiffany asked.

"We ask someone for a lift!" Sandi said.

"There's Robert!" Tori said.

"Yes, Tori dear, ask him," Sandi said.

Tori sighed and walked up to Robert Korleski, as he approached his car.

'At least its a good car.' "Robert? Could you give me and a couple of friends a lift home?" she asked.

"Sure, Ma'am," Robert said, politely.

"Cool," Tori said, and waved Sandi and Tiffany over.

"You can sit up front, Ma'am," Robert said as Sandi and Tiffany approached.

"Thanks!" Tori said as she quickly got into the front passenger seat.

Sandi grumbled as she got in behind Robert, but otherwise said nothing. She knew she would have done the same in her place.

_.1i_

As people stopped entering the estate, Daria and Jane turned to the group. "What are your plans about getting home, Daria?" Cindy asked, knowing that Quinn didn't want to ask.

"We wait for someone leaving the party who is willing to take us home. Otherwise we walk," Daria said.

"I suppose," Cindy said, remembering the discussion she, Kristen and Quinn had had that afternoon. She settled down to wait.

She didn't have to wait long. Robert's car with the Fashion Club came roaring out of the estate.

"Keep driving," Sandi directed.

Robert looked at her in the rear view mirror. "Yes, Ma'am," he said, even though he felt that there was enough room for one of the other girls or for one of his team mates. 'Next time will be different,' he thought as he drove past.

"Ooh, that Sandi!" Quinn exclaimed.

"We can get the next car," Kristen said.

"Yeah, we can," Quinn said, calming down.

_.1j_

A few minutes later, Jodie and Mack pulled up in Mack's white Plymouth Valiant.

"Anyone need a lift?" he asked.

"Sure, Mack," Jeffy said.

"Sure, Mack," Jamie said

"Sure, Mack," Joey said.

Before any of the girls could object, the Three Js piled into the back seat.

Jodie saw that there was room in the front for another person so she her belt and moved over next to Mack. "There is room for one more."

The girls all looked at each other. Daria didn't particulary want to go with any male admirers of Quinn. Quinn thought that seeing Cindy and Kristen home would be a good idea. Jane thought that Daria needed her company. Cindy decided to wait. So did Kristen. So it was Jennifer who ended up sitting next to Jodie in Mack's car.

"Bye," she said, waving. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jane," she said as she got in.

"Just not too early," Jane said, with a smirk.

"Of course not, it will be Sunday," Jennifer said, with a small smile, before closing the door.

_.1k_

Mack then drove off. The Three Js continued waving out of the windows at Quinn until Mack had driven out of sight.

"There will be a few more cars, I guess," Jane said.

"There's no doubt about that," Daria said.

"We will take the next car," Quinn said.

"It would depend on who's driving," Kristen said.

"Maybe," Quinn said.

_.1l_

A minute later, another car came along. Upchuck wound down the passenger side window and said; "You ladies in need of a knight in shining armor?"

"Can't we just take the armor and ditch the knight?" Daria asked.

"Hey, it's a package deal, Toots!" Upchuck said.

'Like we would have taken his car and just left him here,' Quinn thought. She turned to her friends. "Let's go."

Cindy moved to get into the back seat, but Kristen objected. "Ride home with Upchuck! Really?" she said, with scorn in her voice.

"If you're worried about him finding out where you live, Kristen, you can come to my place," Quinn said.

"Would you risk having to ride home with Kevin?" Daria asked.

Kristen thought for a few moments. 'Both are very good points,' she thought. She definitely didn't want to drive home with Kevin. 'And I don't want to walk home alone.'

"You don't have to look at him," Jane said, as she sat in the front, and trying to ignore Upchuck's grin.

"You do have a point," Kristen said to Daria.

"Let's go," Daria said.

"I'm coming," Kristen said, as she got in behind Jane.

Quinn, Cindy and Daria got in the other side, with Daria behind Upchuck. "We're ready," Daria said.

Upchuck drove away from the Estate.

"Where to first?" he asked.

"1111 Glen Oaks Lane," Quinn said.

"Good street," Upchuck said. A few moments later he went back into 'tour guide mode'; "To your left, the home of the town director of public works, built on unstable landfill. To your right, a flattened squirrel. Straight ahead, the future!"

"Stuff a sock in it, Upchuck!" Daria said.

Upchuck growled his usual flirtatious growl. "_Fiesty!_"

'It really was a good party. That dancing was great. I don't know what to make of Jeffy though,' Quinn thought.

_Contains dialogue from _The Invitation_ by Anne D. Bernstein_.

**A/N**

**StarReader86**: Kristen is the black haired Goth with the red streak.


	3. Cafe Geekdale

Page 40 of 40 Quinn's Code Cafe Geekdale

**Quinn's Code (A Daria AU)**

**Installment 3: Cafe Geekdale**

**Monday, October 18, 2005**

Quinn Morgendorffer grabbed the morning paper as she entered the kitchen. "Break in at downtown Cybercafe!" she exclaimed.

"Gaaaahhhhh! I thought this town was safe!" her father, Jake, exclaimed as he came into the kitchen.

"Daddy, the crime statistics for Lawndale are much lower than those for Highland," Quinn said.

"They are?" Jake asked.

"Yes, the statistics for Highland are twenty times higher than those for Lawndale," Quinn's sister, Daria, said as she approached the kitchen.

"Oh!" Jake said.

"What's this about a break-in?" Daria asked.

Quinn read from the paper; "Late last night, the .Com Cybercafe was broken into and Computer equipment stolen, police sources say. This is the ninth break-in at a Lawndale business this year."

Daria grabbed the paper from her sister and looked at the article herself. "Interesting," she said.

"What is?" Quinn asked.

"It says here that the Cybercafe is jointly owned by the Carter County School District and Lawndale State University," Daria said.

"That is interesting," Quinn said.

"Are you saying that a cybercafe is owned by the educational institutions?" their mother, Helen, asked as she came to the kitchen.

Daria handed the paper to her mother.

"Oh, my! A break-in. That never happened to a cybercafe in Highland."

"I don't think there are _any_ cybercafe's in Highland," Quinn said. "At least, I never heard of any," she said.

"You do have a point there," Helen said, after some thought.

"If there was, they would have been broken into almost as soon as they had opened," Daria said as she put some bread into the toaster.

Both Helen and Quinn had to admit that was a correct assessment of that town.

"Well, this probably not the last time we're going to hear about this," Helen concluded.

_.a_

Quinn met her friends Kristen Bell and Cindy Robinson-Brolsma halfway to school, near Cindy's street.

"Hi, guys." Quinn said, coming along side them.

"Hi, Quinn," Kristen said, brushing her dyed red, bangs out of her eyes.

"Morning, Quinn," Cindy said, as she pushed her trapezoidal glasses up her nose.

"Have you read the _Sun-Herald_ this morning?" Quinn asked.

"I haven't, I usually read the paper after school," Kristen said.

"This is about the Cybercafe, right?" Cindy asked.

"Right, it's bad that people break into places, but that is low. I mean some people can only get access to the internet at a cybercafe," Quinn said.

"You're right, but that wasn't the only cybercafe that Lawndale has. There are a few others, and more in Oakwood and elsewhere in the county besides," Cindy said.

"Oh," Quinn said. 'Of course there would be more in town. Lawndale's almost a city afterall,' she thought.

"_Mr. Fun's Games, Cafe and Internet_ is a particularly good one for instance," Cindy said in remembrance.

"That's because you spent most of seventh grade playing _Counter-Strike_ there." Kristen said.

"Good times," Cindy said.

'_Counter-Strike_? Eeeewww!' Quinn thought. Then again, she did play _Halo_ on her X-Box. 'But that has a story.' "So that place is still open?" she said.

"Definitely!" Cindy said.

"With the VR-simulator and a 32 PC LAN, it is the most popular venue for multiplayer gaming in Lawndale," Kristen said.

"Cool," Quinn said.

"That is understating it," Kristen said.

They continued talking about the many Cybercafes in Lawndale as they continued on their way to school.

_.b_

"Class, I thought today we'd take a break from the tragedy of _Romeo and Juliet_ to discuss the real life tragedy that happened last night here in Lawndale. Let's share our feelings of violation following the loss of our beloved cybercafe .com," Mr. O'Neill said to the Sophomore Language Arts class. "Who would like to start." He looked at Kevin. "Charles? Charles, did you hear me?"

"You mean, Kevin?" Kevin said confused.

"Kevin, heh. I'm sorry. You uh, look like somebody else. What do you have to say about last night's horrible event?"

"I was home all night. You can ask my parents. Besides we have a computer," Kevin said,

"No, Kevin. I mean, how did the theft make you feel?" the teacher asked.

'You're asking the wrong person!' Jennifer Burns thought. She thought that the break in at the Cybercafe was the action of people who should have known better.

"Um, sad?" Kevin finally said.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"Angry?" Kevin said.

Mr. O'Neill was in thought, then he asked Jodie Landon what she thought about the cybercafe break in.

"I think the cybercafé served one very particular segment of the community, but it still pisses me off when people take what isn't theirs," Jodie said.

"That's how I feel!" Kevin broke in.

'Oh, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin!' Jennifer thought, knowing that the QB was a lost cause. 'Why does he have to focus on football so?'

"Thank you, Kevin. Jodie, about that word, 'community.' Isn't that the whole idea of a cybercafé? To jack us into the global community? I think what's most disturbing about this crime is the symbolism involved. Don't you agree, Jane?"

"No," Jane Lane said.

"Suddenly, we're cut off. We can't hail our friends across the globe and say, '"It's a beautiful day in the cyberhood.' They didn't just take a few computers. They took the symbol of our virtual community. To visit .com was to come together with the planet!"

'Cyberhood! I am sure Cindy, and a few others, would be pleased to correct you about that!' Jennifer thought.

"Oh, come on," Daria said.

"Yes?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"Come together with the planet? By staring at a screen for hours? Sitting in a room full of people you never say a word to?" Daria said.

'Very good point, Daria,' Jennifer thought.

"Hmm, Interesting point, Dorian," the teacher said.

"It's Daria!" Daria exclaimed.

'Easy, Daria!' Jennifer thought.

Jane looked at Daria as if to say "What brought that on?"

"Sorry, Uh! Damn spiders. Daria, you believe that while connecting Lawndale citizens to our global neighbors, the cafe was alienating us from each other."

"I'm saying if you really miss the place, put a Mr. Coffee in the computer lab," Daria said.

"So, in your opinion, what we really need is a return to the traditional coffee house of yore, where you'd watch some performers and share a cup with your friends, face to face."

'Uh, oh!' Jennifer thought.

"You're a visionary," Jane said sardonically.

"The coffee house! We'll plan it, locate it, raise the money, and open it!"

Daria blanched "Would that qualify as an extracurricular activity?"

"Of course," Mr O'Neill said.

"Then I'd like to register as a conscientious objector," Daria said.

_.c_

During lunch, Daria sat with Jane and Jennifer at the usual table.

"What do you think is going to happen with Mr. O'Neill's idea?" Jennifer asked, wondering if an old style coffee house in Lawndale would be successful.

"Nothing," Daria said.

"Nothing?" Jennifer asked.

"Ms. Li will not shell out for it," Daria said.

"Are you sure?" Jane asked.

"Look at how _stingy_ this Cafeteria is. It is obvious that the Principal keeps a tight rein on the purse strings," Daria said.

The three teens looked around. They could see that the décor dated from the early '90's at best, with hints of 70's and '80s here and there.

"So this morning would be the last we hear of it?" Jennifer asked with a slightly dubious tone. 'It could be a money raiser,' she thought.

"Want to bet on it?" Daria asked.

"Sure," Jennifer said

_.d_

After school, the Anime Club met in the library.

After approximately fifteen minutes of talking about an upcoming convention at the beginning of December, the topic of the conversation changed to the events of the day.

"And so, I will be cosplaying as Ichigo at the convention," Quinn said, referring to the main character of _Tokyo Mew Mew_. She then went back to her seat. 'The convention is going to be really cool,' she thought.

Jenna Schwartz stepped back up to the front. "Very good, Quinn. That concludes official business for today," she said.

"Jenna? What do you think of Mr. O'Neill's proposal for an old style coffeehouse?" Koichi 'Rob' Robazaki asked.

"It sounds like a very good idea," Jenna said.

"What is this about a coffee house?" Quinn asked.

"After hearing about the break in at .Com last night, Mr. O'Neill canceled the lesson that he had planned on _Romeo and Juliet_ to talk to the class about their feelings about that break in," Jenna said.

"How did that lead to a proposal for an old style coffee house?" Quinn asked.

"The new girl in our Language Arts class, Daria, I think her name is, said something that inspired Mr. O'Neill," Rob said.

"Interesting," Jenna said.

'Daria! Oh no!' Quinn thought, pondering how her sister got herself into that mess. 'Possibly some snide remark that Mr. O'Neill misread,' she thought.

"What is wrong?" a blonde named Tania Kingston asked.

"That's my embarrassing sister," Quinn said.

"Oh," Rob said.

"Anyway, continue," Quinn said, being quite anxious to know more about Mr. O'Neill's Coffee House idea.

"Right. O'Neill than says that it would be place to watch some performers and hang out with friends," Jenna said.

"Interesting idea," Quinn said.

"We could read episode reviews there!" Tania said, excitedly. 'Then they will know that anime is better than it sounds!' she thought.

"Or cosplay and read episode reviews, or fanfic!" Tatiana Olivova exclaimed, emitting a squee-like squeal.

The others just looked at her.

"What? There's nothing wrong with fanfic!" she said.

"There isn't if it is well written. Most of it on that site is not," Jenna said. 'There is a reason why I don't go on there anymore,' she thought. Most of her online fandom activities were concentrated on LiveJournal.

_.e_

"Right," Tatiana said.

"We didn't hear about the Coffee House in the freshmen class," Quinn said, steering the conversation away from Tatiana's mention of fanfic.

"Really?" Rob asked.

"Yes," Tatiana said.

"So you would like the junior class, and not just the sophomore class to be able to participate?" Jenna asked.

"Yes, otherwise it wouldn't be fair," Quinn said.

"You can bring that up with Mr. O'Neill tomorrow. I will also talk to him about it," Jenna said. 'Quinn does have a point.'

"That would be great," Quinn said.

"Absolutely," Tatiana said.

The Anime Club continued to talk about the idea for another ten minutes before breaking up to head home.

That night, after dinner, Cindy and Kristen visited Quinn.

"An old style coffeehouse?" Cindy asked, when Quinn had finished telling her and Kristen about what had happened at the Anime Club meeting. 'It would certainly add more variety to night activities here in Lawndale, that is for sure,' she thought.

"Yes," Quinn said.

"What brought that on?" Kristen asked.

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked.

"How did Mr. O'Neill think of the idea?" Kristen asked.

"Koichi said that Mr. O'Neill was inspired by a remark that Daria had made," Quinn said.

"That explains that," Kristen said.

"So, then I suggested that the freshmen as well as the sophomores can do performances there. That would, like, be rather cool," Quinn said.

"It would be," Cindy said.

"I know what you would like to do," Kristen said to Cindy.

Cindy shrugged.

"Anyway. I could read some poetry," Kristen said as she thought. 'Some of the audience would appreciate it.'

"It's not too angsty, is it?" Quinn asked, knowing that Goths often wrote poetry that was quite angsty.

Kristen looked away. "It really depends on how one defines angst, doesn't it," she said. 'I don't think it's that angsty.'

"Sorry," Quinn said, also looking away.

"Don't worry, she does get like that sometimes," Cindy said. 'One thing I have learned is; don't judge Kristen by her appearance!'

"Anyhow. I would bring some of my more _hopeful_ poetry to the first night, whenever that is going to be," Kristen said.

"I would certainly listen to it," Cindy said.

"I know that you have listened to some of it," Kristen said with a smile.

"I really should listen to it, huh?" Quinn said, guessing where she had gone wrong in the last minute.

"Yes," Cindy said, jumping in.

"Sorry about that," Quinn said. Then the sound of metal music came through the walls.

"Who's playing that music?" Kristen asked, wanting to change the subject from the discussion about her poetry.

"Oh, that is just Daria, playing her music really loud," Quinn said. "A good thing that her room has that soundproofing," she said, quieter.

"It sounds a little interesting, if a little sad," Kristen said.

"Of course it's sad. Daria's a misanthrope!" Quinn said.

"The question would be; why is she a misanthrope? Wouldn't it?" Kristen said, as she went to the door.

"I wouldn't disturb her, she's rather private," Quinn said.

"I'll be back, after I ask Daria about that music," Kristen said. She left.

"You think that Daria won't talk to Kristen?" Cindy asked.

"She will tell her to leave her alone and then slam the door in her face. Otherwise she will just ignore her," Quinn said.

"Maybe Jane and Jennifer have had a positive effect on her?"

"The likelihood is remote. Jennifer says that she feels that her friendship with Jane is closer than that with Daria."

"It's still possible," Cindy said in thought.

"I guess so," Quinn said, as she looked out one of the front windows.

._f_

Kristen walked up to Daria's room and knocked on the door. After a minute of the music continuing at the same volume she knocked again.

'Nothing for it, except to just go in,' she thought. She grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door, preparing herself to see whatever was inside.

However, she was not prepared to see what she actually saw. Padded walls like those in a psychiatric institution.

She looked around in slight shock, at the archaeological print, the wheelchair rail, the plain brown bed, the sawn off bars in the windows, the models of a slice of cheese and a human heart, the television on the trolley, the keyboard set up and amplifier, the set of drawers, computer set up, Kafka poster and book shelves.

She saw the short, auburn-haired, teen playing the music on a bass guitar with the lead plugged into the amplifier. She was reading the music off a handwritten sheet held above the keyboard and softly singing the lyrics. Kristen stepped into the room and listened to the sad metal tunes.

After another minute Kristen made another move. "Daria?" she asked.

At the sound of Kristen's voice Daria started "Eep!" and dropped the guitar on the keyboard. She swiftly turned around, causing her bleached bangs to fall across her face. She blew them aside with a harsh blow. "How long have you been there?" she asked, with a stern expression.

"Only about a minute," Kristen said.

Daria thought for a moment "That's alright I guess. But you shouldn't just barge in uninvited and listen to my internal musings!" she said.

"I guess so. But you sound so sad," Kristen said.

"You would sound sad too if you grew up in a town like Highland, and your younger sister hogged the spotlight constantly!"

"I guess so," Kristen said. She was the youngest, but she did feel that Kelly did hog some of the spotlight in the eyes of her parents. 'She even dyed her hair the same as me. I dyed it this way first!' she thought. She shook her head, turning her thoughts back to Daria. 'She isn't telling the whole story.'

"Out!" Daria said.

"Wait!" Kristen said.

"What?" Daria asked.

"I would like to ask you about your music, besides the personal aspects, that is."

Daria thought for a moment. "Fine. I write metal, it suits my mood. I also listen to metal, otherwise it would be punk or rock. Anything from any other genre would have to have an existential bent to it," she said.

"That would include blues and country and western, wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"What I like, is similar, but a little more upbeat. Also more Gothic in tone," Kristen said.

"As I expected," Daria said, playing an improvisational piece on the keyboard. She stopped, then flipped pages in the notebook and quickly wrote down the notes she had just played.

'She's quite talented,' Kristen thought. "What was expected?" she asked.

"The Gothic tones."

'Of course,' Kristen thought. She would have said something more except that Quinn came into the room.

"Um, I thought you were fighting," Quinn said diplomatically.

"We weren't. I was just asking your sister about her music," Kristen said.

"Oh, she almost never talks about her music," Quinn said.

"I got that impression. She hasn't told me very much," Kristen said. 'But it is enough to know that Daria is quite withdrawn and moody,' she thought.

"Quinn, Kristen, you can leave now!" Daria said.

"What is your problem? We were about to leave!" Quinn said.

"My problem! You are my problem!" Daria almost shouted.

"Oh really?" Quinn began. Kristen slipped out of the room.

"Yes!" Daria shouted.

._g_

_512 Grandstaff Drive_

The Fashion Club were having a sleepover at club president Sandi Griffin's house. After dinner they had all gone up to Sandi's bedroom.

"There is a reason why I asked you to stay over tonight. We have to, like, do something about Quinn," Sandi said.

"Why?" Stacy Rowe asked. The Fashion Club didn't usually do sleepovers.

"_Sta-cy!_ We need to stop the Geekiness of that _Geek_endorffer from getting any more popular!" Sandi exclaimed.

"Why?" Stacy asked.

"Tori?" Sandi asked, turning to the Vice President, Tori Jericho.

"According to my sources, whom I have asked in the last week, the popularity of various science fiction and fantasy media amongst Lawndale High students has gone up drastically," Tori said. She took a bar chart out of her bag. "According to this, the popularity of _Stargate Atlantis_ has gone up by 33%!"

"Is that all?" Stacy asked. 'That is nothing to be concerned about. Even if he's a brain and a jerk, that McKay guy is cute.'

"What do stars and gates have to do with a ci-ity that saaank in the oce-an?" Tiffany Blum-Deckler asked.

"That's not all, _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,_ and by association, the other Narnia books, by 50%," Tori said.

"That's probably due to the movie which is coming out in a couple of months, not due to Quinn," Stacy said.

"_Sta-cy!_"

"Eep!"

"I wasn't finished," Tori said.

"Sorry," Stacy said.

"_Futurama_, 10%. _Lord of the Rings,_ 30%. _Halo,_75%. _World of Warcraft_, 95 %._ The Matrix,_ 80%. _Battlestar Galactica_ 45 %. _Wheel of Time,_ 25%. _Redwall_, 55%. _Back to the Future,_ 70 %." Tori then listed a few more; some not even sci-fi or fantasy.

"I get the point!" Stacy said, even though she liked some of the stories listed.

"Yes. Tori, I see that the games have become very popular. That is why we need to destroy the _Geek_endorffer's popularity!" Sandi said.

"I have an idea," Tori said.

"Then _tell_ us, Tori!" Sandi said.

"Today, some of the sophomores were saying that Mr. O'Neill plans to open an old style coffee house for performances," Tori said.

"The point being?" Sandi asked.

"The point being, Sandi, that it is a venue we can use to discredit Quinn! We can write a speech denouncing her Geekiness!" Tori said.

Sandi thought about it. That was a very good idea. She smiled. "Excellent!" she said, subconsciously copying the mannerisms of Montgomery Burns from _The Simpsons_.

'Oh no!' Stacy thought. "But there is a problem," she said.

"What is that?" Sandi asked, turning to Stacy.

"Only the sophomores will be performing at the Coffee House."

"Oh, Really? I will see about that. I will ask Mr. O'Neill to allow freshmen to perform," Sandi said.

"Great idea, Sandi," Tori said.

"Yes, it is," Sandi said.

._h_

Back at the Morgendorffers, Helen went upstairs to find Cindy and Kristen waiting outside Daria's door with concerned looks on their faces. "What is going on?" she asked.

"Mrs. Morgendorffer, Quinn and Daria have been arguing for around ten minutes," Kristen said.

"Oh my! They usually get tired of arguing after _five_ minutes!"

"I knew something was up," Kristen said.

Cindy nodded.

"Don't worry. They don't usually come to blows," Helen said, although her voice showed some apprehension.

The door opened and Quinn came out, visibly sweating. She closed the door and said; "I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you sure?" Helen asked.

"Something is up between you and your sister," Cindy said.

"Most of the issues are on her side anyway. You would have to ask her. Good luck with that!" Quinn said as she headed back to her room.

"I would still like to know," Kristen said.

"I'll tell you when I'm ready. Not right now," Quinn said as she went into the room.

Cindy followed Quinn into the room. "We don't need to know now. But we can be there when she wants to tell someone," she said as she stopped at the door.

"True," Kristen said, as Cindy entered the room. She remained in the hallway for a few moments longer.

"I wouldn't worry overly much. Quinn is strong, although a little obsessive sometimes," Helen said.

"I know, on both counts," Kristen said. "Thanks, ."

"You're welcome," Helen said as her daughter's goth friend went back into the room.

._i_

**Tuesday, October 19. 2005**

Daria entered the kitchen for breakfast to find her mother waiting for her. "Didn't you have a 7:00 AM meeting?" she asked.

"When I called Eric for directions, he said that the meeting was canceled," Helen said.

"Oh!" Daria said.

"You know, Daria, it wouldn't hurt if you got involved in some after school activities once in a while."

Daria just grabbed a box of breakfast cereal.

"I'm serious. When you apply to college, they're going to be looking for that sort of thing."

"They're going to be looking to see whether I can pay for school. This might be a good time to talk about setting up a trust?"

Helen sighed. "I just want you to think about it, Daria. That's all I ask."

Daria just poured some milk on her cereal.

"Otherwise we might have to make it up over the summer. Send you to some kind of camp."

"You wouldn't," Daria said.

Helen just gave her daughter a poignant look.

"You would. But I would have to interpret it as punishment for doing something, very, very, wrong."

"Nonsense. It would just be an easy way of getting some extracurricular activity on your college applications... If you weren't able to come up with any on your own.

"You're good. When you put your mind to it, you're very, very good."

"You'll find something to get involved with. It'll be fun."

"Swell," Daria said.

"I also heard that you were involved in another argument with Quinn last night," Helen said.

That brought Daria up short. "Who told you that? I know Quinn didn't."

"Kristen did. She and Cindy are close to Quinn and want to know what is going on between you two."

Daria just took a bite of her cereal.

Helen sighed.

_.j_

Sandi arrived at her Language Arts class early, only to find that Quinn was already talking to Mr. O'Neill. 'Of course, her Language Arts class is first," she thought. She hung back in the doorway and listened in on their conversation...

._k_

"So, you want the Freshmen to be able to perform at the opening night of the Coffee House?" Mr. O'Neill said.

"Yes. You are always going on about students maximizing their potential or whatever," Quinn pointed out.

"That is a good point," Mr. O'Neill conceded.

"So are the freshmen going to be able to perform at the opening night or not?" Quinn asked.

Mr. O'Neill stammered and cowered slightly before saying; "Yes, as well as the Juniors and Seniors, also any middle schoolers that are also interested."

"Very good."

"Thanks, Quinn," Mr O'Neill said as she left.

Quinn noticed Sandi standing near the door as she left the room, but didn't give her any attention. 'Doesn't matter whether she was eavesdropping or not,' she thought.

After Quinn had gone, Sandi entered the room. "Mr. O'Neill, we need to talk," she said, a little more forcefully than she had intended.

"What about, Sandi?"

"I heard about this Coffee House you are, like, setting up and apparently it's only for sophomores!" she said.

"Yeah, I have just talked to that new girl, Quinn Morgendorffer, about that. I have decided to throw it open for everyone!" Mr. O'Neill said.

"Excellent," Sandi said, momentarily ignoring the teacher's mention of Quinn for the moment.

"Yes, it will be excellent for the students who participate," Mr. O'Neill said.

"Of course," Sandi said.

"Is There something else you want to talk about, Sandi?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"Nothing," Sandi said as she left the classroom, leaving the teacher confused. 'Let him be confused,'

_.l_

Daria and Jennifer entered the Language Arts classroom a few minutes early.

"Daria, I 've talked to Ms. Li and she said that your idea is a great idea!" Mr. O'Neill said when she arrived at the Language Arts Class.

"So it's going ahead?" Jennifer asked, with slight surprise.

Yes. Opening night will be this Friday. If money can be raised via fund-raising by that time, that is," Mr. O'Neill said.

"Great," Daria said. She then thought for a second about the conversation with her mother that morning. "Actually, I would like to volunteer to work on the coffee house."

"You do?" Jennifer asked with a raised eyebrow.

"My mom is forcing me to do an extracurricular activity."

Jennifer shook her head "That's not right," she murmured. 'But hardly unexpected, given what they have both said about her,' she thought.

"Anyway, that's great! I guess you want to read one of your essays."

"No, I wasn't actually thinking about performing," Daria said. 'Why did he have to assume that,' she thought.

"Maybe that one about feeling like a big misfit whom everybody hates. The other kids will really relate to that. I know I do."

"I don't know if that's such a great idea. That's the one that compares the sophomore class to barnyard animals. It names names," Daria said.

"Except Jane and myself, of course," Jennifer murmured.

"Oh, yeah," Mr. O'Neill realized.

"I'm really not much of a performer. I'm thinking more along the lines of that fundraising you mentioned?" Daria asked.

"Oh. Well, we're selling magazines, CDs, and wrapping paper. Jump in!" Mr. O'Neill said with enthusiasm.

"Can I join?" Jennifer asked. 'Seeing Daria doing an extracurricular activity is worth it. Besides I will be letting her knock on the doors!' she thought.

"Good for you, Jen!" Mr. O'Neill said.

"Can Jane join to?" Daria asked.

"If she wants to," Mr. O'Neill said.

"She's a big joiner," Daria said.

The sarcasm went over Mr. O'Neill's head.

'He doesn't get sarcasm, does he?' Jennifer thought.

_.m_

When all the class was seated Mr. O'Neill made the annoucement to the class. "This Friday night is the inaugural _Performance Night_ at the new Café Lawndale Coffee House. I would like to discuss with you possible ideas for performances."

Jodie Landon put her hand up.

"Yes, Jodie."

"Ms. Li has agreed?" Jodie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, Jodie. She says that it will increase the school's visibility in the Lawndale community," he said.

"Right," Jodie said. She knew what Ms. Li meant when she said that though.

"Anyone else?"

"We can practice cheerleading routines there?" Brittany Taylor asked.

"Sure, Brittany, but wouldn't you like to do anything else?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

Brittany twirled one of her pig-tails as she thought. 'We have been working on Shakespeare.' "Some lines from Hamlet would be good for me and Kevie to perform," she finally said.

"That would be good, Brittany."

"But, Babe!" Kevin objected.

"I am sure that you could_ learn_ them in time, Kevie!" Brittany said.

"But the words are confusing!"

"That is what Language Arts Class is for, Kevie!" Brittany said. 'I may not get more than a D+, but I do understand the language in those plays!'

"Um, Okay," Kevin said.

"Twenty if Kevin doesn't remember the lines," Daria said to Jennifer.

"It's a given. That is too much," Jennifer said.

"Five, if he doesn't remember the lines," Daria said.

"Losing to me hurts, doesn't it?" Jennifer asked.

Daria grumbled.

"Anyone else?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

Andrea Hecuba raised her hand. "I will read some poetry," she said.

"Excellent!"

_.n_

That afternoon, Jennifer and Daria went to Casa Lane prior to fund-raising for the Coffee house via the selling of chocolate.

"No way. Are you two out of your mind?" Jane asked as she painted.

"My mom is forcing me to do an extra-curricular activity," Daria said.

"You have to admit that the Coffee House is a good idea," Jennifer said.

"True," Jane admitted.

"So, you are coming?" Jennifer asked.

"No," Jane said.

"Come on. Do it for Friendship," Jennifer said.

"Maybe," Jane said.

"Then do it for the opportunity to look inside people's houses and find out what screwed-up tastes they have," Daria suggested.

Jane perked up. "I'm bringing a Polaroid!"

_.o_

"Hi! We're selling long distance phone cards," Quinn said to the young man whom had opened the door.

"I just use a credit card," the young man said.

"Are you really happy with the service?" Cindy asked.

"It's fine," the young man said.

"Does your internet go _really _slow, for instance?" Cindy asked. 'That is one way a person can be dissatisfied,' she thought.

"It doesn't. I just got broadband," the young man said.

"Are you happy with that?" Kristen asked.

"It's fine," the young man said.

"I mean, are you _really_ happy with the voice quality on your long distance calls?" Quinn asked, honing in on the reason why they were there.

"I don't get you. W-why shouldn't I be?" the young man asked.

"I mean, are you ever really looking forward to talking to someone, and then can't hear them because of crackling and static?" Quinn asked.

"Not really," the young man said.

"She means, that if one of your friends received a call from you, they'd want to listen to you, not some static!" Cindy said.

"You have a really nice voice. Your friend should be able to hear it," Kristen said. 'And that is the truth,' she thought.

The young man backed up a bit. "They usually, uh..."

The three friends looked at each other. "Just pretend you're calling one of us," Cindy said. 'That is one way to get our point across,' she thought.

"What?" the young man asked.

"Really, just try it. My name's Kristen, and the others are Cindy and Quinn."

"What's your name?" Quinn asked.

"Danny."

"So call me, Danny," Cindy said.

"Ok," Danny said, he made a gesture in imitation of a telephone. "Hello? Uh, Cindy?"

"Is that you? Danny?" Cindy asked.

"Hi! Cindy?"

"Speak up, Danny. I'm afraid I can't hear you!" Cindy said.

"Hi! Cindy? It's me, Danny."

"I've been thinking about you all day. The way your eyes glisten when you laugh. I can't get it out of my mind," Cindy said.

"Really?" Danny asked.

"You have to speak up, Danny! Listen, do you want to come over tonight? I have the house all to myself for the weekend."

"Yeah! I mean, um, s-sure, Cindy."

"Oh, that's OK, Danny, I understand. I'll see if Jamal wants to come over." Cindy said.

"But I said..."

"Bye!" Cindy said.

"Wait!" Danny said.

"Click!" Cindy said.

"See what can happen with bad long distance service, Danny?" Quinn asked.

"Who's Jamal?" Danny asked.

"Oh, someone at school. I'm not sure that is even his name..." Cindy said.

"So you would like a phone card?" Kristen asked.

"I guess so," Danny said.

Jennifer rang the doorbell, but was then surprised when a very obese woman answered the door, wheezing as she moved. "Um, hi. I'm selling chocolate bars for the new student coffee house," she said.

"Speak up! I can't hear you," the woman said.

"We're selling chocolate bars for the new student coffee house," Daria said.

"New coffee house?"

"Our cybercafé got trashed." Jane said.

"Well, I enjoy chocolate. Doctor says I'm not supposed to have too much of it, but he wouldn't mind if it's for a good cause."

'Somehow I think that he would mind, even if it's for a good cause,' Jennifer thought.

The woman went inside for some money which gave opportunity for Jane to take a photograph of her living room.

"Just... just a second, girls," the woman said as she returned.

"Are you alright?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah, yeah. Just, just, I was in the basement when the doorbell rang. Need to catch my breath a little. How many chocolate bars you got there?"

"We've got about two boxes. That's twenty-four," Daria said.

"Tell you what: I'll take all of them."

"All of them? Really?" Jane asked.

"That's not really fair for others, is it?" Jennifer asked.

"You sure that's okay with your doctor?" Daria asked.

"It's okay as long as he don't know about it! Dammit! Where's that purse?" the woman then coughed, fainted and fell to the ground.

"That's not good!" Jennifer said.

"Uh-oh!" Daria uttered.

"Did she hit her head?" Jane asked.

"I don't think so," Daria said.

"Do either of you know CPR or anything?" Jane asked.

Jennifer nodded. "I do, but has been a while since I did the training."

"I once gave the Heimlich maneuver to Quinn," Daria said.

"Did it work?" Jane asked.

"She wasn't choking," Daria said.

'Quinn hasn't told me about anything like that!' Jennifer thought. It was more evidence of angstier than usual sibling rivalry.

"We should be doing something now. I'm sure of it," Jane said.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Daria said.

"Help me move her into the recovery position," Jennifer said, as she stooped down. 'I have to do something!'

Daria and Jane shrugged and also stooped down to help Jennifer. This coincided with the woman returning to consciousness.

"What are you doing!" she demanded.

"Moving you into the recovery position, but since you are now conscious, there's no need," Jennifer said.

The woman stood up. "Damn hyperglycemia. I'm sorry, girls, I'm holding up the works. Okay, now, how much apiece on those chocolate bars?"

"Ma'am, I'm not sure I can sell you any chocolate bars," Daria said.

"I'm afraid that I have to agree with her," Jennifer said. 'She just fainted from Hyperglycemia and she still wants the chocolate bars!

"What's the matter? My money's not good enough for you?"

"It's not that, it's just... maybe it's not such a good idea," Daria said.

"The reason should be obvious!" Jennifer projected.

"Give me those chocolate bars!" the woman shouted.

"Thank you for the offer though, ma'am, and for caring about the students of Lawndale High," Jane said.

"We could call your doctor or the hospital if you like," Jennifer said.

"Otherwise, we'll be going!" Daria said. The teens walked away to go to the next house.

"I don't need a damn doctor, I need a damn chocolate bar! Gimme! I'll pay ya five bucks apiece!" the woman offered.

"Have a nice day, ma'am," Daria said.

"Come back here!"

_.o_

As the teens approached the obese woman's next door neighbor's house they reflected on the situation.

"Five dollars apiece. We would've made over a hundred bucks," Jane considered.

'At the cost of her life!' Jennifer thought.

"Yeah, and all we had to do was take a human life," Daria said.

"You always see the downside, don't you?" Jane asked.

"In this case, yes," Jennifer said.

"Certainly," Jane said.

Jennifer knocked on the door. 'I hope that this person isn't like the other one,' she thought.

._p_

"I'll say that is a successful afternoon, Quinn," Cindy said.

"Yeah, definitely," Quinn said.

"We definitely make a good team," Kristen said.

"One more house, before the sun goes down," Quinn said.

"Sure," Kristen said, as they turned from Pinewood Road into Glen Oaks Lane. 'It has definitely been a successful afternoon.'

_.q_

As they went towards the house on the corner of those two streets, they noticed that Kevin and Brittany were also approaching that house. 'This could be a problem,' Kristen thought.

"Hi, popular brains, you are fund-raising for the coffeehouse too?" Kevin asked, as he and Brittany came up.

"Of course they are, Kevie!" Brittany said.

"Yes, we are," Quinn said.

"Cool!" Kevin said.

"We were about to go and sell at that house. Would you like to join us?" Kristen asked.

"Sure!" Brittany said.

"Um, Okay," Kevin said.

"Very cool!" Cindy said.

The three geeks, the quarterback and cheerleader then went to sell their wares to the family in that house.

_.r_

Excerpt from the Diary of Anastasia Elizabeth 'Stacy' Rowe (October 19, 2005)

On that note, Sandi then said that she wants to use the Coffee House as a venue for the destruction of quote 'The Geekendorffer's popularity' end quote. I have to warn Quinn somehow, but I don't know her email address! I hope I will be able to find it out tomorrow...

._s_

**Wednesday, October 20, 2005**

Ms. Li entered her office and immediately the phone began to ring. "Who could this be, that can barely wait to call _Lawndale High_?" she asked. She picked up the phone. She was immediately blasted by some ranting.

"Calm down, and repeat what you just said!"

"_I said, that three girls from your school came around yesterday afternoon selling chocolates for a new coffee house, but they suddenly didn't sell me that chocolate, despite the fact that I eventually offered twice the value!_"

'That is serious!' The principal thought. "I see. Do you have a name I can refer to in my investigation of this matter?" she asked.

"_Mrs. Iris Johansen._"

"Thank you. Can you describe these students?"

"_Yes, they were very distinctive. One wore her blonde hair over one side of her face and a dark jacket with a red skull on the back._"

Ms. Li wrote; Burns.

"_The second one had long auburn hair, big round glasses and a green jacket."_

Ms. Li wrote; Morgendorffer, D. 'I can see that she is becoming a troublemaker. Too bad she left that self esteem class.'

"_The last had short black hair, although her eyes were blue, she wore a red jacket._" Mrs. Johansen concluded.

Ms. Li wrote; Lane. "Thankyou, I will talk to the three students involved! Make no mistake, Mrs. Johansen, I take matters like these very seriously."

"_Thank you,_" Mrs. Johansen said prior to hanging up.

'Now I have to deal with this impertinence!' Ms. Li thought as she put the phone down.

._t_

Shortly before recess, the three friends sat in front of Ms. Li's desk.

"Why are we here?" Daria asked.

"The school received a phone call this morning from a Mrs. Johannsen. She said three girls came to her door to sell her chocolate bars, and then suddenly refused to do so. Hmm. Even after she offered five dollars a bar, or more than twice the asking price," Ms. Li said.

"She was hyperglycemic. The chocolate would've killed her," Daria said.

"She passed out while we were standing there," Jennifer said. 'There is no way she can refute that,' she thought.

"Did she ask you to feed her the chocolate?" Ms. Li asked.

"Of course not," Jane said.

"How do you know it wasn't for her family?" Ms. Li asked.

"We didn't see any family," Jennifer said.

"She has no family. She ate them," Jane said.

Jennifer glared at Jane through her hair 'That is not helping our case!' she thought.

Mr. O'Neill then spoke; "Daria, Jane, Jennifer, we're two hundred dollars short of what we need to open the coffeehouse."

"So, your refusal to sell chocolate to this woman was based purely on concern for her welfare," Ms. Li said.

'Of course, didn't you hear what I said?' Jennifer thought.

"And not wanting to do time for manslaughter," Daria said.

"I second that," Jennifer said.

"You have no overall problem with raising money for the coffeehouse?" Ms. Li asked.

"I believe in coffee. Coffee for everyone. But I don't want to sell any more chocolate bars. It makes me feel dirty," Daria said.

"The bad kind of dirty," Jane clarified.

"Well, I can't force you to do fundraising, but I can't give you credit for participating in the coffee house project, either," Ms. Li said.

'Uh, oh!" Jennifer thought.

"Wait. Daria, what about what we discussed? Reading something on opening night," Mr. O'Neill said.

"I don't think so!" Daria said.

"You do want this extracurricular activity, don't you?" Ms. Li asked.

"Remember your mom," Jennifer whispered to Daria.

"Fine!" Daria said.

"Fabulous!" Mr. O'Neill said.

"Although I still don't know where we're going to find that two hundred dollars. Well, maybe the freshman volunteers will make up some of it," Ms. Li said.

'I hope so,' Jennifer thought.

As if in answer to Jennifer's hopes, the office door opened to reveal Quinn, Cindy and Kristen with pockets and hands full of cash.

"Where do you want us to put this money?" Kristen asked.

"Just give it to Mr. O'Neill. He will take care of it," Ms. Li said, happy that the Coffee house would be able to open after all.

_.u_

As she walked away from the principal's office with her friends, Daria thought about what she would do about Friday night. 'I have to do something,' she thought. 'Maybe that _Melody Powers _song,' she thought.

._v_

At lunch; Stacy crept along the corridors. She found her destination; the room where the Anime Club usually met after school. She looked around to ensure that no one in the Fashion Club, or any other popular clique was nearby. She saw no one (or any security cameras), so she opened the door and slipped inside.

Once inside; Stacy went to the desk and expertly fished out the sheet with the contact details of the membership on it. She quickly found Quinn's information near the bottom of the list. She took out a notebook and quickly copied all of Quinn's contact details, before placing the sheet back exactly where it was.

She then left the room, but not before ensuring that everything was exactly as it was when she entered and that no one would see her leaving the room.

However, she didn't notice that someone did see her leaving the room...

_.w_

A special meeting of the Anime Club was held in the library after school.

"The reason why I called this meeting is that I thought we could collaborate on possible performance ideas for the Coffee House," Jenna said.

"That is a good idea, Jenna," Quinn said.

"What about my idea for reading fanfic?" Tatiana asked.

"Well, not all of us write fanfic, Tatiana. But you can read your fanfic there if you want to," Jenna said.

"Cool!" Tatiana said.

"Perhaps, reviews of the various series. What they are about, how well they are produced and the characters," Rob said.

"That's a cool idea!" Quinn said. 'That is totally a cool idea. The audience will get an appreciation for each series,' she thought.

"Anything else?" Jenna asked.

"Reviews of individual episodes as I suggested on Monday, Jenna," Tania said.

"Any new ideas?" Jenna asked, wondering if there would be any.

"We could talk about games that are based on various anime and manga," Quinn said. She could think of many examples right there.

"Good idea, Quinn," Jenna said.

"Yeah," Quinn said.

"So which series do you think we could review?" Jenna asked.

"_One Piece_?" Rob suggested.

"That's a good one," Tania said.

"And quite cool too," Jenna said.

"_Ghost in the Shell?_" Quinn suggested.

Jenna wrote it down. "Cool!" she said.

"_Ranma ½?_" Tatiana suggested.

Jenna glared at Tatiana. "I don't think so," she said.

"Why not?" Tatiana asked, disappointed.

"They would not understand the idea of it," Jenna said, shaking her head. Tatiana grumbled.

"Anything else?" Jenna asked.

"_Pokemon?_"

"Most of them may be familiar with that, but sure."

"Yes!"

"_Cowboy Beebop_?"

"That is a good show," Jenna said.

"Cool," Quinn said.

"_Bubblegum Panic_?"

"Possibly."

They continued their discussion for another 15 minutes.

_.x_

When Quinn got home she went upstairs and logged on to her email accounts.

Almost immediately she found a mysterious email in her Hotmail account.

_.y_

**ldtomboy91 Coffee House Peril 2005, 10, 20 03:45 PM**

"Weird," she said. 'What is so perilous about the Coffee House?' she wondered. She clicked on the link to the message.

To: **Geek_** Geek_Quinn(at)hotmail(dot)com

From: ldtomboy91(at)yahoo(dot)com

Hi, Quinn.

You don't know me, but I also go to Lawndale High. The reason why I am sending this email to you is to warn you that someone is going to use the Coffee House to discredit you, to try to destroy your popularity, possibly by saying a lot of mean things about you.

This will be my last communication.

From ldtomboy91

agzayuke aeuurrsmu uvaqi

_.z_

Quinn had to read it again, to be sure of what it said.

'Thanks for warning me, whoever you are,' she thought. She wasn't sure what to make of it. She knew of several of her classmates who were disgruntled about her influence since she started at Lawndale High. However the foremost of that group was Sandi Griffin, with her protégé Tori Jericho just behind her.

'You will not get away with this, Sandi,' she thought.

_.α_

As the sun set, Daria and Jennifer arrived at Casa Lane.

Jane was watching _Sick Sad World_ when they entered her room. She muted the show. "So, you have performance ideas for the Coffee House?" she asked.

Jennifer shook her head vigorously. "You know that I don't do well on stage. The Esteem-a-Teen course graduation assembly was the best that I could do," she said.

"Oh yeah," Jane murmured, remembering several middle school assemblies where Jennifer's stage fright had gotten the best of her.

"There is a song that I have been working on," Daria suggested.

"Do tell!" Jane said.

"It's about an American agent who hunts Russian spies in South America," Daria said as she sat on the bed.

"Sounds violent," Jane said.

"Mr. O'Neill will have a fit!" Daria said.

"Is that figuratively or literally?" Jennifer asked, uncertain what Daria meant.

"Both," Daria said.

Jennifer grumbled. "Can I see the lyrics?" she asked.

"I haven't finished it yet," Daria said.

"Can I look before you play it at the Coffee House?" Jennifer asked.

"Yeah, both of you can," Daria finally said.

"Cool, maybe I can show Trent!" Jane said.

"Aagh!" Daria exclaimed.

"May I take that as a no?" Jane asked.

"I think it is," Jennifer said.

Daria looked back at Jane. "What are you planning for the Coffee House?" she asked.

"Me? Nothing. I will watch everyone else embarrass themselves."

"I guess that you don't want the extra-curricular activity," Jennifer said.

"I don't," Jane said.

'Of course not,' Jennifer thought.

_.β_

**Thursday, October 21, 2005**

Through the day, many of the students of Lawndale High, thought about what they might be seeing if they went to the Coffee House, or in a minority of cases, what they would be performing...

During lunch, Brittany was reading over the scene from _Romeo and Juliet_. 'Is that Caplet or Capulet?' She was excited about performing at the Coffee House, but she didn't know how Kevin would perform. 'At least he promised he would learn the lines.'

_.γ_

Jodie came up to Daria as they left Science. "Mr. O'Neill told me that you are doing something at the Coffee House," she said.

"So?" Daria asked.

"So, I would like to know what you are going to do?"

"You will find out when everyone else does," Daria said, as she walked off.

Jodie sighed. She had been hoping that she would be able to help Daria with whatever performance she had planned.

"What's wrong?" her boyfriend, Michael 'Mack' Mackenzie, asked as he came up.

"Nothing," Jodie said.

Mack didn't believe that, but he didn't press.

._δ_

After school, Quinn met Andrea as she left the school building. "There will be a meeting of the Programming Club tomorrow," Andrea said.

"Yeah, Laurence told me," Quinn replied, referring to another member of the Programming Club.

"One of the things we will be discussing will be the coffee house," Andrea said, as she started walking.

Quinn followed her. "Why?" she asked.

Andrea looked back "You will find out," she said.

"I'll be there," Quinn said.

"Good," Andrea said.

'What is she up to?' Quinn thought yet again.

_.ε_

When Daria arrived with Jane and Jennifer at the Pizza King, many of the patrons were discussing the Coffee House. "Is that _all _they can talk about?" Daria asked.

"It's Lawndale. There's not much else to talk about," Jane said.

"I guess so," Daria said, as she went to order a pizza.

"Touchy, isn't she?" Jane asked Jennifer.

"Definitely," Jennifer murmured, as she remembered what Jodie told her about at lunch.

_Griffin residence_

The Fashion Club was in Sandi's room, they were nearing the end of their regular official meeting.

"Motion approved?" Sandi asked.

_.ζ_

All three other members put up their hands.

"Motion carried," Sandi said.

Tori smiled.

"Coool!" Tiffany said.

"Last topic for this afternoon; tomorrow night's opening of the Coffee House," Sandi directed.

Stacy fidgeted as she entered the topic into her notebook, betraying her agitation about Sandi's antagonism towards Quinn.

Sandi noticed the fidgeting. "Sta-cy, is there, like, a problem?"

"Eep! No, Sandi. No, problem!" Stacy said quickly.

"Good. Now, I have written a speech in which I eloquently state the reason why Geeks, especially, like, that _Quinn_, should not be popular," Sandi said. She took a sheet out of the right drawer beneath her computer.

"Are you going to read it to us?" Tori asked.

"Sure," Sandi said. She then read the speech to the club.

"Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High and other Coffee House patrons..."

_.η_

_Later_

"Opinions?" Sandi asked, looking at Tori.

"Quite argumentative. Most people will support us," Tori said.

"But, Sandi -," Stacy began to say, but she was interrupted by a glare from Sandi.

"No buts!" Sandi said.

"Sandi! What will Mr. O'Neill say?" Stacy asked.

Sandi snorted "Puh-lease, like Mr. O'Neill will do anything more than say 'Oh dear!' He won't say anything negative. He certainly won't say anything to Ms. Li," she said, imitating Mr. O'Neill when she said 'Oh dear!'

"That's riiight," Tiffany said.

'That seems to be true,' Tori thought.

"Maybe," Stacy said, more subdued.

Sandi smiled. "That concludes this meeting. Stacy, concluding time?"

Stacy looked at her watch and at Sandi's bedroom clock. Both were within two minutes of each other. "5:45, for a duration of 1 hour and fifteen minutes," she said, averaging the time between the two time pieces.

"Usual length of meeting, plus time to, like, read the speech," Sandi said.

Stacy wrote the concluding remarks down and closed the notebook.

_.θ_

Unknown to the Fashion Club, Sandi's mother, Linda, had listened to Sandi make the speech. She smiled a wicked looking smile. 'Very good, Sandi,' she thought. It was exactly as she had hoped. Sandi was following in her footsteps.

._ι_

**Friday, 22 October, 2005**

Sandi awoke at 7:20. After getting ready, she took the speech and went to the bathroom.

"Sandi Griffin, Fashion Club President," she said, scrutinizing her near perfect appearance.

"Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High and other Coffee House patrons, I have prepared this statement to tell you that Geeks are not welcome, like as members of the popular cliques," she began.

…

"Thank you for your time." After this conclusion she was silent for a moment before looking at herself again. "You will be triumphant! Quinn, that _Geek_endorffer will _not_, like come back from this."

There was knocking. "Come on Sis! I need to _go!_" her brother, Sam said.

'Of course he would,' Sandi thought. She folded the sheet with the speech on it and opened the door. "All yours, you brat!"

"Finally!" he said as he dashed into the bathroom past his sister.

Helen was preparing to leave for work when the door bell rang. "Who could that be?" she wondered. She went and opened the door. "Oh, Hi, Jennifer! Are you here for Quinn or for Daria, neither of them have come down for breakfast yet."

"Hi, Mrs. Morgendorffer. For Daria. I am helping her with her performance at the Coffee House this evening," Jennifer said.

Helen opened the door wider, allowing the quiet girl in. "It is great that she is participating in an extra-curricular activity. She is still quite anti-social and stubborn," Helen said. 'I see that you have been a good influence,' she thought.

"I had to encourage her," Jennifer murmured. She knew what it was like to be shy and emphasized with Daria.

"What was that?" Helen asked, not quite hearing what Jennifer said.

"Yeah, it's great," Jennifer said with a little sarcasm.

"You can go right up," Helen said, pondering Jennifer's tone.

_.κ_

Jennifer knocked on Daria's door.

Daria quickly opened it. "Hi, are you ready?" she asked.

"I am. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."

Daria smirked briefly, prior to letting Jennifer into the room.

"Close the door. I don't want Quinn complaining about the noise."

"Sure," Jennifer said, as she closed the door and glanced at the padded walls. 'Excellent soundproofing,' she thought.

Daria grabbed her guitar, carefully swung it around and began to play.

_.λ_

15 minutes later, Daria had gone through her performance twice.

"That's a little better. Mr. O'Neill will still react to it though," Jennifer said.

"I want him to react," Daria said.

"Make him think that the Coffee House is a bad idea?" Jennifer asked.

"Yes," Daria simply said.

Jennifer shook her head in good humor.

_.μ_

Quinn and Jenna were talking as they approached Lawndale High.

"...And then Jennifer said that Daria doesn't want the Coffee House to succeed," Quinn said.

Jenna stopped. "She wants it to fail?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"I hope that her song, whatever it is about, won't be that bad."

"Well it's metal music, so I think it might be borderline," Quinn said with a nervous laugh, as they came to the front of the school.

"I will try to convince Mr. O'Neill to have the Anime reviews first," Jenna said.

"I have my _Ghost in the Shell _review."

"That's good!"

Quinn smiled.

_.ν_

Quinn approached the Programming Club meeting with aprehension. "Why are you so apprehensive, Quinn?" Wolfgang Schuhardt asked.

Quinn turned to the nerdy boy. "Have you ever thought that Andrea may be a hacker or something?" she said quietly.

Wolfgang stopped and looked around. "I have, but only after others have told me their suspicions," he said.

"No one has told me, but she gives off that vibe, you know," Quinn said uneasily.

"She does give off an unfriendly vibe, but I don't think that means that she is a hacker."

"What of the network share at her house?"

"You don't have to share files there if you don't want to."

"I guess not," Quinn said.

Wolfgang opened the door. "Girls first," he said.

"Thanks," Quinn said.

_.ξ_

Andrea arrived last. She looked at the half dozen members. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called this meeting today?" she asked.

There was brief muttering among the members.

"It has to do with the Coffee House."

The members looked at each other in confusion, what did the Coffee House have to do with anything that the Programming Club did?

Quinn raised her hand.

"Yes?" Andrea asked.

"What about the Coffee House?"

"I am reading a poem there and I would like an opinion," Andrea said.

'Weird,' Wolfang thought.

"Really?" someone asked.

"Yes," Andrea said.

"Let's hear it," Quinn said, wondering what it would entail...

_.ο_

Quinn left the Programming Club meeting slightly annoyed. "Andrea didn't need to call a meeting for that!" she murmered.

"I agree," Wolfgang said as he followed her out of the room.

"And I don't want to think about that poem of hers. It's quite creepy and macabre," Quinn said, with a shudder.

"Remindes you of her house, doesn't it?" Wolfgang said.

Quinn nodded.

"She invited me over alone once when we were in middle school. That's a day I wouldn't ever forget."

"Don't tell me!" Quinn said with hands raised.

"I wasn't going to," Wolfgang said quietly.

"Good," Quinn said relieved.

"We can talk about what else may be performed at the Coffee House."

"Sure."

_.π_

At her house, Cindy was talking to one of her cousins on an instant messenger progam.

Brols_trekker: So how's your new friend?"

Cindyquil: She is settling into Lawndale well, although one of our classmates has taken umbrage to her becoming popular.

Brols_trekker: Oh?

Cindyquil: The school has set up a new Coffee House and Quinn has received a mysterious email which says that someone wants to use the Coffee House to destroy her popularity.

Brols_trekker: That's not good!

Cindyquill: It definitely isn't

_.ρ_

At the Lane house, Daria was playing the song for Jane in the basement. She had plugged her guitar into Mystik Spiral's equipment.

Trent came down the stairs, curious about the unfamiliar song which was coming up from the basement.

Daria suddenly noticed that Trent was there and fumbled with the guitar, dropping it into a nearby pile of clothes.

"Woah!" Trent said.

"Yes, Daria is a musician," Jane said, having neglected to tell her brother that possibly pertinent information.

"Hi," Daria said as she blushed.

"Wow, you're really good, Daria," Trent praised.

'He does have an effect on her,' Jane thought.

"Um, thanks," Daria said, quietly.

Jane took Trent aside. "Could you go and get us some water?" she asked.

"Sure, Janey."

After Trent had gone up to the ground floor, Jane said "Wow, you do have a crush on him, don't you?"

Daria grumbled and picked up her guitar. She started playing from the point where Trent had interrupted her.

'Amazing. She is definitely a lot better than all four of them combined.' Jane thought as she continued listening.

_.ς_

When Brittany arrived at the Coffee House with Kevin, she noticed that there were almost no seats left. "I told you we should have come earlier, Kevie," she said.

"There are few seats left," he said.

'He doesn't get it,' she thought "Oooh, but they are not where I wanted to _sit!_" Brittany said.

Kevin winced as Brittany's voice squeaked higher than usual. "Sorry, Babe!" he said. He didn't like it when she hurt his ears.

._σ_

The audience applauded as Quinn stepped off the stage after reading her _Ghost in the Shell_ review.

"Thank you, Thank you," she said, as she gave a bow.

Sandi seethed. 'You won't be so cheerful for long, you _Geekendorffer!_' she thought.

_.τ_

"That's not how one should treat their guitar!" Daria said as the boy on stage started throwing it around, after he had caused some feedback.

"I didn't care for his song either," Jennifer said.

"All he was saying was 'I loathe you'," Jane said.

"No, there were other lyrics..." Jennifer pointed out.

_.υ_

Brittany was on stage, performing a scene from Romeo and Juliet. "Oh Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"

"I'm right here, babe!" Kevin said, also on stage, holding a skull.

Some football players cheered Kevin on.

"Deny thy father and refuse thy name! Or thou will't not be but sworn, my love, and I'll no longer be a caplet!"

"Hey! Yo! I'm down here! Check it out!"

Brittany was rather annoyed. "Check it out? You promised to learn your lines, you, you clown! And what's that skull supposed to be?" She stalked off stage, giving off vibes of barely contained anger.

"The skull's cool," Kevin said, his usual oblivious self.

'You don't get it,' Jennifer thought with a slight shake of her head.

_.φ_

Andrea was up on stage. "I'm here. But where are you? Sure, I see your body. Anybody home in that rotting bag of flesh?" she said as she concluded her poem.

"See? You don't want to do poetry for this crowd," Jane said.

"You think it's too late for me to learn juggling?" Daria asked.

"Yep," Jane said.

Mr. O'Neill walked up to the stage. "Thank you very much, Andrea. It takes a lot of courage to expose your raw emotions that way."

As a spotlight focused on her table, Andrea put the bottle that she had been drinking behind her. She didn't want to get caught drinking at a school related event.

"And now a commentary on social relationships at Lawndale High, by Sandi Griffin."

"Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High and other Coffee House patrons, I have prepared this statement to tell you that Geeks are not welcome, like as members of the popular cliques," she began.

"Oh dear," Mr. O'Neill said, as he realised what Sandi was trying to do. He hoped that not too many self identified geeks in the audience wouldn't be traumatised.

_.χ_

'This doesn't sound good,' Quinn thought as Sandi began. She listened in disbelief as Sandi continued her rant against Geeks. 'Good thing I came prepared.' She took the speech she had written the night before out of her pocket, and gave it a look over. 'It will have to do.'

"You are going to read that?" Cindy asked.

"I'm going to have to," Quinn said.

Kristen nodded in agreement.

_.ψ_

Sandi came to a conclusion.

"And, that is why I believe that Geeks should not be popular and that new kids should not, like, rock the boat. Thank you for your time."

She then stepped off the stage, smiling.

"That was great, Sandi," Tori said.

"Thanks."

_.ω_

Quinn stood up as Sandi went to her seat. "Mr. O'Neill? Can I read a rebuttal of Sandi's speech?"

Mr. O'Neill lit up. "Sure, Quinn," he said.

Quinn went up to the stage.

"Why Geeks can be popular, a general rebuttal of the previous speech. Good Evening, Students of Lawndale High, and Lawndale and Glenfield Middle Schools. Some shallow and yet popular students may take umbrage at Geeks being popular for what may seem to be petty reasons. Why do they do this, you may ask..."

_.aa_

Sandi seethed as Quinn went on, rebutting most of the points of her own speech. 'This cannot stand!' she thought. She turned to Tori. "Tori, we need to rebut this speech!"

"How, Sandi? We; and by we, I mean you, didn't plan for this occurring," Tori said.

"Then I will have to, like, improvise."

'I hope Sandi's improvising skills are up to the task,' Tori thought as she looked at the Coffee House patrons taking in Quinn's speech.

As Quinn continued her speech the Three J's smiled more and more in admiration of her eloquence.

"...And that is why Geeks can be popular amongst their peers. Thanks for your time," Quinn said as she concluded.

Most of the audience stood up and gave a standing ovation, even Daria. 'What Sandi is trying to do is wrong,' she thought.

Only the Fashion Club didn't. Stacy started to, but was cut off by Sandi's glare.

"Eep!"

"What were you thinking?" Sandi asked.

Quinn bowed, as she took in the adulation, before going back to her seat.

_.ab_

Sandi then stood up. "Um, Mr. O'Neill. I would like, like to rebut _Quinn_'s rebuttal," she said, with an edge to her voice.

"Oh, a _debate_. Go ahead, Sandi."

Sandi then walked up on stage again. "My points from earlier are still valid. Now, I'm like, going to explain them..."

She struggled to rebut Quinn's points and the audience began to laugh at her.

"Oh, dear!" Mr. O'Neill said.

Sandi's face hardened as she remembered some speeches that her mother had made. The reminiscence allowed her to make a recovery, and thus she continued.

_.ac_

"Uh-oh!" Jennifer said.

"She's weakening though," Jane said.

"Probably going to be close one," Jennifer said.

_.ad_

"What is _up _with her?" Quinn asked Kristen and Cindy.

"She won't admit defeat," Cindy said.

"I agree," Kristen said.

"I will have to rebut her rebuttal," Quinn realized.

"Good luck," Cindy said.

"I'll need it," Quinn said with a nervous laugh.

_.ae_

By the end of Sandi's rebuttal most of the audience had given her their rapt attention. Half of them clapped as she came off the stage.

"Oh, dear! Quinn, would you like to come up for your rebuttal?" Mr. O'Neill asked.

"Of course," Quinn said as she took up. Cindy, Kristen, Jennifer, Joey, Jeffy, Jamie and Mack gave her encouragement as she passed them. She said "thanks," to each of them. The eyes of the audience were on her as she went up to the stage...

She paused briefly before beginning.

Again the audience listened to Quinn attentively, even Kevin.

"Go, Quinn. All right!" the QB shouted.

Brittany sighed.

Quinn rebutted most of Sandi's rebuttals, before stepping down once more. Most of the audience clapped.

_.af_

"Now, Sandi will come and give her concluding remark," Mr. O'Neill said.

Sandi came out again, although she knew that most of the audience was on Quinn's side. 'How could this go so wrong?' she thought. She concluded weakly.

She seethed as Mr. O'Neill asked Quinn to go up for her concluding remark.

_.ag_

Quinn once again rebutted the majority of what Sandi had said about Geeks, and the reasons why they shouldn't be popular. She concluded the discussion by saying; "...and that is why Geeks can be popular. Thanks for your time!"

Mr. O'Neill began the standing ovation.

_.ah_

In the midst of that ovation, Sandi ran out of the Coffee House, holding back tears. Tori followed her. 'I hope that she isn't too devastated,' she thought.

_.ai_

Quinn took in the adulation.

_.aj_

Sandi ran from the Coffee House in the direction of her home.

"Sandi! Wait!" Tori called as she exited the Coffee House.

"Why should I, like wait! The _Geekendorffer_ won!"

"Sandi, she may have won now, but there is still a lot of high school left! Besides not everyone was here tonight," Tori said.

Sandi lit up. "That's right," she said. She turned back to the Coffee House. A stern expression came onto her face. "You may have, like, won tonight, Morgendorffer! But I will have the last say, and I will be more popular!"

"That's the Sandi Griffin I know!" Tori said.

"Absolutely." She turned back in the direction that she was already going in. "Come, Tori, we must prepare for next month."

Tori groaned slightly. "Why Sandi? What are we doing next month?" She asked.

"The same thing we will do every month, Tori. Try to take over Lawndale High," Sandi said with a little humor.

"We don't need to start planning now, and I would like to see what performance was scheduled after your speech."

"It's only the Misanthropic sister of that Geek. It would be like, almost as bad as Andrea's poem," Sandi said as she led Tori away from the Coffee House.

"It might not be," Tori said.

"Let's go anyway," Sandi said.

Tori followed her away from the Coffee House, in the direction of the Griffin residence.

Hardly anyone saw Sandi, or Tori, run from the Coffee House; only Stacy and Tiffany. Stacy took the opportunity to applaud Quinn.

"Where's Sand-di?" Tiffany asked.

"Who cares!" Stacy said as she applauded Quinn.

Tiffany joined her.

_.ak_

It took a few minutes for the adulation to die down once Quinn returned to her seat. "Guys, guys, that's enough, thanks," she said.

Once the noise had died down, Jane said; "She was really good."

"I would never be able to do that," Jennifer said with slight shake of her head.

"She was in the Highland Middle School debate team," Daria said as she grabbed her guitar.

"Oh."

_.al_

"Now our final performance of the evening; a song by Daria Morgendorffer," Mr. O'Neill said.

Daria started playing.

"_Melody reflected; What special agent could resist the opportunity to fill a few Bolshevik cemeteries?_"

Most of the audience wasn't sure what she was singing about, but the tune was good...

_.am_

Aleesha Nibblett walked out of the Coffee House by herself. 'That was a very interesting discussion,' she thought. She thought that Quinn was interesting. 'Maybe we can be friends?' she pondered.

She continued to think about the debate as she went home. 'Sandi is becoming a megabitch' she thought.

**Saturday, October 23, 2005**

Jake read from the _Sun-Herald_ as Daria and Quinn ate breakfast.

"'Cafe Lawndale is a success'. Isn't that the coffeehouse you were working for?" he asked Daria.

"It is, I have the extra credit," Daria said.

"School authorities have declared that Lawndale's new young adult Coffee House is a success after an impromptu debate against bullying of geeky students resulted in a few standing ovations. 'The students who participated in the debate wish to remain nameless,' explained Coffee House director Timothy O'Neill, a teacher at Lawndale High."

Quinn smirked briefly before taking another spoonful of cereal.

Helen entered the kitchen at a brisk pace; "Breakfast meeting at the Royalton," she said as she grabbed a snack and ran.

"But you haven't even tasted my soufflé," Daria commented sarcastically.

"'Cafe Lawndale will remain open to allow students to maximize their potential,' O'Neill said," Jake read aloud as he continued to peruse the paper.

"That's cool," Quinn said.

"I'll say! It's great that they get a place to 'hang out'."

_Contains dialogue from _Cafe Disaffecto _by Glenn Eichler_


	4. Geekery at the Mega Mall

**Quinn's Code (A Daria AU)**

**Installment 4: Geekery at the Mega-Mall**

**Monday, October 25, 2005**

"A hundred miles? To go to a mall? Dammit, there's a mall five minutes away!" Jake Morgendorffer ranted.

"Sit down, dear. We're not going," his wife, Helen, said, reassuringly.

"Oh, oh!"

"It's not a mall, it's a super mall! The Mall of the Millennium. Everything under one roof. I could spend days there..." their younger teen daughter, Quinn said.

"If you play that John Lennon song backwards, it says, 'Imagine all the people, browsing in a mall.' Isn't that weird?" Quinn's older sister, Daria snarked.

"It's too far away, Quinn, and you've done enough shopping for this quarter," Helen said. 'All computers all the time. It's all I can do to tear her away from them!' she thought.

"Mo-om! As a member of the Computer and Programming Clubs, I have to keep on top of the current trends in computer equipment. Some of that equipment is not available in Lawndale!"

"Computer and Programming Clubs? Did you know that she was in those clubs, Helen?" Jake asked.

"Yes, Jake."

"The Computer and Programming Clubs? I thought she was in the Anime Club."

"She is in that club too, Dad!" Daria said, not looking up from her plate of lasagne. 'She is definitely overachieving.'

"Say, what do you think of this PDA?" Jake said, as he took his PDA out of his pocket.

Quinn looked at it. "It's quite obsolete, Daddy. You may as well have a Newton," she said with a slight nervous laugh. "Now, if you drive me to the Mall of the Millennium..."

"No! We're not going to a mall outside the county," Helen said.

"How will I hold my head up in the Computer and Programming Clubs?" Quinn whined.

"A traction pulley?" Daria snarked.

Quinn turned to her sister. "Just because _you're_ not interested in what's new and up-to-date!"

"Oh, I'm interested. But why go a mere 100 miles away? I bet they have some fascinating malls in Japan for your tech-head and otaku needs!" Daria said.

"Daria," Helen said, trying to defuse the situation.

"I wouldn't go that far," Quinn said.

"Japan? To go to a mall? Dammit!"

"Sit down, dear. It was a joke," Helen said.

"Oh!" Jake said.

Quinn ran out of the kitchen.

_.O .0_

Quinn entered her room and slammed the door. "Damn it!"

She opened her cellphone and called her friend Kristen Bell. She also noticed that Cindy Robinson-Brolsma was online in the Instant Messenger Screen on her main PC.

She changed her online status from Busy to Annoyed.

"_Hi, Quinn, what's up?_" Kristen asked.

Cindyquill: Hi, what are you annoyed about?

"I can't go to the Mall of the Millennium!"

Geek_princess91: My parents won't let me go to the Mall of the Millennium!

Cindyquill: Oh?

Geek_princess91: I want to get some equipment and software from the Cuter Computer store there. It's the closest store to Lawndale.

"_Why would you want to go there? It's quite large. Very easy to get lost._"

Cindyquill: There are also Cuter Computer's in Pittsburgh and Richmond.

"I guess so," Quinn said, thinking. She didn't want to go into Pennsylvania or Virginia though. "I want to buy some stuff from a store there, that isn't available here." 'And the rest of the chain is _much_ further away!' she thought.

Geek_princess91: I'm not sure.

Cindyquill: If you can't go, you can't go.

Geek_princess91: I would still like to go.

"_That would be either an Anime DVD or computer equipment, right?_"

Quinn began typing 'Computer equipme'. She stopped. 'Oops!'

"Computer equipment. If it were a DVD I would get it from Amazon."

Cindyquill: Too bad Cuter Computer doesn't have an online store.

"_That is a good idea__;__ I have been doing that with books for a while now. Too bad you can't get the equipment you want that way._"

Geek_princess91: I have heard that they are going to set one up next year, but it wouldn't be quick enough.

Cindyquill: Impatient?

"Yeah."

Geek_princess91: Yeah, I like to keep up to date, to keep up with the latest equipment as it becomes available, you know.

Cindyquill: I know

"_So there is a store in the Mall of the Millennium that sells equipment that's not generally available?_"

"Yeah."

Geek_princess91: I guess I may have to wait, but I don't have to like it!

"_What is this store called_?"

"Cuter Computer."

Cindyquill: True

"_And there aren't any closer_?"

"No, Cindy said that the next closest are in Richmond and Pittsburgh," Quinn said with a slight giggle.

Geek_princess91: I would still like to go.

Cindyquill: I am sure you might find a way, just not too soon.

Geek_princess91: Certainly.

_.I .1_

**Tuesday, October 26, 2005**

"In economics, we call this flow. We have a scenario of supply and demand, where a new demand is created by a previous supply. Does everyone follow?" Lawndale High School Economics teacher Diane Bennett said as she tried to teach her sophomore class.

She paused to wait for responses.

"Can anyone give me a concrete representation of this abstract theory?"

There was a long pause. "Daria?" she finally asked.

"If we're talking concrete, I'd have to go with that repository of human greed and debasement: the mall," she said.

Mrs. Bennett had an idea "Very good, Daria. The mall is a beautiful illustration of these economic principles. In fact, it would make for an excellent field trip."

"All right! Field trip!" Kevin Thompson said. "Where are we going, man?" he asked Daria.

"The field."

"Cool!"

"We'll visit the Mall of the Millennium. It's the perfect emblem of a modern day economic structure."

"Um, I think that's a really bad idea," Daria said.

"Don't be silly, Daria. It's your idea and it's perfect," Mrs. Bennett said.

'Her sarcasm is too much for all of the teachers at this school,' Jennifer Burns thought.

"I second Daria. The mall is a dangerous influence on today's teens and the fluorescent lights give you seizures," Jane Lane said.

Jennifer smiled at Jane's sarcasm.

"We'll take a vote. All in favor of a class trip to the mall this Friday instead of our usual surprise quiz?"

Most of the class raised their hands.

"All opposed?"

Daria, Jane and Jennifer raised their hands.

"This is great! Kevin and I love going to the mall during school," Brittany said.

Mrs. Bennett frowned.

"I mean, between classes. I mean... what do I mean, babe?" Brittany said, trying to clarify.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Bennett. I can't go to the mall. I have a skin condition," Daria said, trying to get out of the field trip.

"What are you talking about, Daria?" Mrs. Bennett asked.

"If I'm in an enclosed space for too long, I get hives," Daria said.

"But you're in an enclosed space now," Mrs. Bennett said, seeing Daria's excuse for what it was.

"Yes... and I'm really itchy."

"These hives get bad, Mrs. Bennett. I've seen them, they get really red!" Jane said.

Jennifer nodded as support for Jane's assertion.

Daria glared at her friends.

"Just trying to help," Jane said.

Daria grumbled.

_.II .2 .10_

At lunch the Fashion Club sat at one of the 'popular' tables.

"I have an idea, let's ditch school on Friday and go shopping, like, at that Mall of the Millennium," Club President Sandi Griffin said.

"Is that such a good idea, Sandi?" Stacy Rowe asked.

Sandi glared at her.

"Eep!"

"She does have a point, Sandi. There is a quiz in Home Economics on Friday," Vice President Tori Jericho said.

"Precisely, like, this early in the year we can afford to miss it!" Sandi said.

"I agree with Sand-di," Tiffany Blum-Deckler said.

Sandi smiled at Tiffany.

"I guess one quiz won't matter. An opportunity like this won't come up every month," Tori said.

Stacy mumbled.

"What did you say, Stacy?" Sandi asked.

"I will go to the Mall of the Millennium with you!" Stacy said.

"Excellent," Sandi said.

After school Quinn walked up to one of her fellow Computer Club members. "Um, Xavier? I'm wondering if you could drive me to the Mall of the Millennium on Friday?"

Xavier Daldon thought for a moment. "Isn't that in southern Delaware?" he asked.

"So?" Quinn asked. 'What's wrong with Delaware? At least it's not Texas...'

"I will have to think about it," he said.

"You don't have to answer right away," Quinn said.

"I will give you my answer by Thursday night."

"Cool," Quinn said.

_.III .3 .11_

Jennifer drove Daria and Jane towards Jane's house.

"There's no way we can get out of this field trip, is there?" Jennifer asked.

"No," Jane said.

Daria sighed. "I'm sure it won't work, but I will ask Mrs. Bennett tomorrow to call off the field trip," Daria said.

"I'm not sure that will work," Jane said.

"I'm going to ask anyway. I can be quite stubborn," Daria said.

"We've both seen that," Jennifer murmured as she turned into the Lane's driveway.

_.IV .4 .100_

**Wednesday, October 27, 2005**

Quinn entered the Programming Club meeting, followed by Wolfgang Shuhardt "I could drive you to the Mall of the Millennium, Quinn," he said.

"How did you know about that?" Quinn asked with surprise.

"I was talking to Xavier in Computer Studies; he mentioned that you had asked if he would drive you there," Wolfgang said.

"Oh?" Quinn asked. 'He should really have not told Wolfgang,' she thought.

"He said that he wasn't sure that he would go."

"If you can take me that would be great!" Quinn said.

"I'll see if I can borrow my mother's car."

"You can get back to me by tomorrow night," Quinn said. 'Cool,' she thought, hoping that Wolfgang's mother's car was something relatively new (or a classic like Jennifer's).

"I hope I will be able to."

_.V .5 .101_

After school, Daria knocked on the faculty office door. The head history teacher, Mr. Anthony DeMartino, opened the door. "Ms. Morgendorffer, to what do I owe the pleasure?" he said.

"Is Mrs. Bennett here?"

"She is, I'll send her out."

_.VI .6 .110_

Mrs. Bennett soon came out.

"What is it, Daria?" she asked.

Why are we going on a field trip to the Mall of the Millennium?" Daria asked.

"I stated the reasons in class," Mrs. Bennett said.

"Yes, but there are malls much closer," Daria said.

"Malls that you are familiar with, Daria. Take a chance, make a small mistake, but minimise the mess, we're going on the field trip."

Daria tried to argue.

"Is it the place of the school to preach the consumerism aspect of our culture?"

"I don't know what you mean, Daria," Mrs. Bennett said.

"I mean what I said, Mrs. Bennett!" Daria said.

_.VII .7 .111_

"And so Mrs. Bennett wouldn't change her mind. The only way I can think of to make a real protest would be to blog about it," Daria said as she and her two friends ate pizza at the Pizza King.

"Absolutely," Jane said.

"But there would be no way for it to get on Slashdot. Although maybe Technorati," Jennifer said quietly.

"Somehow, I don't think it's meme-worthy enough," Daria said.

"So, we're going to the Mall of the Millennium. No big deal," Jane said.

"It just won't be enjoyable," Daria said.

"I agree with that," Jennifer said as she took a bite of pizza.

_.VIII .8 .1000_

As Stacy went to bed she wondered what the trip to the Mall of the Millennium on Friday would be like. 'I hope Sandi will allow me to shop where I want!' she thought as she went to sleep.

_.IX .9 .1001_

**Thursday, October 28, 2005**

Quinn entered _Mr Fun's Games, Cafe and Internet _15 minutes after leaving school. "Quinn?" Koichi 'Rob' Robazaki asked.

"Yeah?" Quinn asked.

"I can take you to the Mall of the Millennium, Quinn," Rob said.

"How did you know about that?" Quinn asked, surprised. 'Does _everyone_ know that I'm going to the Mall of the Millennium?'

"Jenna told me," Rob said.

"I should have guessed," Quinn said, knowing that Jenna and Rob were close. (How close, she wasn't sure.)

"Yeah," Rob said.

"I'm still waiting to hear from a couple other people," Quinn said.

"Ok, who?" Rob asked.

"You don't need to know," Quinn said.

"I don't?" Rob asked with a frown.

"I will hear back from them tonight. I'll give you a call if I don't," Quinn said.

"That's cool," Rob said as Quinn went towards one of the arcade machines.

_.X .A .10 .1010_

Later that night, Quinn waited for Wolfgang and/or Xavier to call whilst doing her homework.

The clock on her Windows PC changed to 10:00.

She stood up. "Ugh! I will have to call Rob, after all," she said as she grabbed her cell phone.

"_Hi, is this Quinn?_"

"Yeah, Koichi?"

"_Yeah, Quinn?_"

"You can take me to the Mall of the Millennium tomorrow."

"_That would be very good, Quinn._"

"I would like to leave Lawndale by 8:30, so there will be plenty of time for shopping when we get there."

"_That is ok. I usually leave home by 8:00, so I will be at your place by 8:15 at the latest,_" Rob said.

"Cool," Quinn said.

"_I will see you in the morning,_" Rob said.

"See you then, bye," Quinn said, and hung up. She then continued her homework.

_.XI .B .11 .1011_

Ten minutes later, the cell phone rang. "Who could this be?" she said prior to taking the call. "Hello?"

"_Hi, Quinn, it's Wolfgang_."

Quinn moved the cell phone from her ear and covered the microphone with her hand "Oh, dear!" she said. She then placed it back at her ear. "Um, I have already arranged with Koichi to go to the Mall of the Millennium with him."

"_Oh!_" Wolfgang's voice sounded slightly hurt.

"You're welcome to come with us if you want," Quinn said, with a slight agitated giggle.

"_What are your plans?_"

"Koichi is going to pick me up at 8:15 and be out of Lawndale by 8:30," Quinn said.

"Ok," Wolfgang said.

"We could pick you up; it wouldn't do to have your car parked on the street near my house all day."

"_No problem there, your house isn't that far from mine. I can walk._"

"Are you sure? We could go by your place."

"_I'm sure._"

"Cool, I'll see you at 8:10 then?"

Wolfgang agreed and hung up. Quinn hoped that the situation wouldn't go out of hand. As she placed the phone down it rang again. 'I guess that this is Xavier!' she thought with slight agitation. "Hello?"

"_Quinn, I hope I am not too late!_" Xavier said.

"Depends how you define 'too late.'"

"_I am too late, aren't I?_"

"Yeah, you are, Xavier, but you can still come with if you still want to skip school," Quinn said sweetly.

"_That would be good. What time can I come around?_"

"About eight, but not any later."

"_About eight?_"

"Yes."

"_I can do that._"

"Cool," Quinn said.

"_So, who is picking you up_?" Xavier asked.

"Koichi."

"_Oh, OK_."

"Is that alright?"

"_It's alright, I wasn't expecting it is all._"

_.XII .C .12 .1100_

**Friday, October 29, 2005**

Quinn saw Daria leave the house at 7:50, heading towards Jane's house, from one of her bedroom windows. She had heard her parents leaving for work earlier. She then left the room to get breakfast.

_.XIII .D .13 .1101_

Xavier found the Morgendorffer's house at 8:00. 'Eleven-Eleven, this is the place. Quite a large house,' he thought. He rang the doorbell.

Quinn opened it soon afterwards. "Hi, Xavier, the others aren't here yet,. You can come in and wait," she said.

"Sure, Quinn," he said. He stepped inside and took in the sight of the living room... "This is quite large,"

"It is, isn't it?"

_.XIV .E .14 .1110_

Wolfgang arrived at Quinn's house slightly early. He knocked on the door. Quinn opened it "Hi, Wolfgang, we're just waiting on Koichi now," she said.

"How soon?" Wolfgang asked as he came inside. He saw Xavier watching the news on the TV. "Hi."

"Five to ten minutes," Quinn said.

"Cool," Wolfgang said.

_.XV .F .15 .1111_

When Jennifer arrived at Jane's house she could see that Daria and Jane were waiting for her.

"So, ready for the mall trip?" she asked.

"As I'll ever be," Daria said.

"Same here," Jane said.

"You don't usually wait out in the front," Jennifer said.

"I want to get there early," Daria said.

"Ok," Jennifer said.

"Sure," Jane said.

_.XVI .G .10 .16 .10000_

At 8:25 Koichi drove his mother's SUV out of Lawndale on Maryland State Route 276. Quinn was sitting in the passenger seat and Xavier and Wolfgang were in the back. "We should be at the Mall of the Millennium by 11:00 at the latest, Quinn," he said.

"Very good, but it would be good idea to keep the radio on to listen for traffic conditions," Quinn said.

"Sure, Quinn," Rob said.

"I'm not sure it would make much of a difference," Wolfgang said.

"Why?" Quinn asked.

"There is only one bridge over the bay," Wolfgang said.

"I meant for within Baltimore," Quinn said.

_.XVII .H .11 .17 .10001_

At 8:35 the Fashion Club also left Lawndale on the same route, being driven by a male victim escort.

"Why did we have to do this again?" Stacy asked.

"Because, we had to take up this opportunity!" Sandi said.

"Right!" Stacy said.

"I don't think that answers the question, Sandi," Tori said.

"I think it does, _Tor-ri_," Sandi said.

Tori grumbled.

_.XVIII .I .12 .18 .10010_

**Maryland/Delaware Border**

The Fashion Club stopped at a gas station immediately on the Delaware side of the border.

"Why are we stopping here?" Sandi asked.

"We need gas!" Guy, the Fashion Club's driver, said.

"Didn't you fill it up back in Lawndale, like, before you picked us up?" Sandi asked.

"No, you were insistent on leaving so quickly!"

"Right! I'll fill it then!" Sandi said. She went to the pump herself.

Guy grumbled.

_.XIX .J .13 .19 .10011_

Guy drove the car away from the gas station.

"You didn't have to fill the car up," Guy said.

Sandi turned to him "I want to get to the Mall of the Millennium as soon as possible, like with a minimum of delay. We have already been in rush hour traffic, like back in Baltimore!"

"We still have plenty of time, Sandi," Tori said.

"But not as much as we could have had!" Sandi said.

"I guess not," Tori said.

"Right," Guy said, his eyes on the road. He saw a destination sign on the side of the road.

Crossbro, 30 Mi

_.XX .K .14 .20 .10100_

**Crossbro, Delaware**

Rob drove carefully as they approached the edge of the Mall of the Millennium's outer parking lots.

"It's going to take a while to find a parking spot and to walk in," he said.

"Of course," Wolfgang said.

"I know," Quinn said.

"I will park in the first one I find," Rob said.

"That would be best," Quinn said.

"I agree," Wolfgang said.

Xavier looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was 10:45. 'I has to be all that traffic in Baltimore. The radio didn't really help,' he thought.

It took a while for Koichi to find a space.

_.XXI .L .15 .21 .10101_

At 11:00 Sandi stalked ahead of the Fashion Club into the Mall of the Millennium's main entrance. "If you hadn't been late, Stacy, we would not have been, like, caught in Rush Hour traffic on the way through Baltimore!"

"I said I was sorry!" Stacy said.

Sandi glared at Stacy.

"Eep!"

Guy sighed.

"And if we hadn't needed more gas!" Sandi said to Guy.

"I did say I'm sorry!" he said.

Sandi just gave him a look of disapproval.

Behind her, Tori shook her head.

_.XXII .M .16 .22 .10110_

At 11:15 the Economics class had just entered the Mall and were already lost...

"We're in area B, section Pink, and we need to get to area C, section Orange. So, if we just bear right at area L, section Blue... oh, wait, sorry. Wrong level," Mrs. Bennett said, trying to get the class out of the predicament.

Kevin noticed an interesting store. "Look, Mack Daddy! The Sports Shorts! A whole store full of shorts for sports!"

"Uh-huh," Mack said, too tired to try to tell Kevin to not call him by that nickname. 'Why doesn't he get it through his thick head already!'

"Everyone, we'll walk down R Moss, and turn right at Q Canary. Please keep the flow, people, please keep the flow," Mrs. Bennett said.

"I could find the way if she'd let me have the map," Jennifer whispered to Jane.

"Maybe," Jane said with a shrug.

"Who would ever guess there'd be so many colors? The person who thought them all up must be a genius," Brittany said.

"Yeah, and we haven't even gotten to puke green yet," Jane said. She glanced at Daria, who still looked queasy from the bus trip. "Oh, yeah."

"I hope we find the executives soon," Jennifer said.

"Why?" Daria asked.

"So we can get out of this boredom," Jennifer said.

"Left at N Cranberry. Wait, is that cranberry or magenta? Jane, you're an artist," Mrs. Bennett asked, unsure of the colors.

"It's cranapple," Jane said.

'Very difficult to tell,' Mack thought.

Charles Ruttheimer III, otherwise known as Upchuck, noticed a store that piqued his purient interest. "Mrs. B? Can we please stop for a minute at Bikini Island? I'd like to buy a few trifles for the ladies, and perhaps you'd care to pick out something for yourself?"

"Not now, Charles. We'll be late for our meeting with the mall executives. I had to work very hard to arrange this. These are very important, very busy..." Mrs. Bennett trailed off as she was distracted by something that piqued her own interest.

"What is it, Mrs. B?" Upchuck asked.

Mrs. Bennet ran over to a store and looked in. "The Fuzzy Wuzzy Wee-Bit Shop! Herbert and I _collect_ Fuzzy Wuzzy Wee Bits! Aren't they adorable? Look, a Fuzzy Wuzzy Wee Bits cactus! And look at that little bunny rabbit with its own Fuzzy Wuzzy carrot!"

"Great!" Daria said.

_.XXIII .N .17 .23 .10111_

They soon found themselves in a conference room.

"...And of course, when you go to the mall, you look for what?" one of the mall executives asked the class.

"Bikinis! Make that lovely, luscious, ladies in bikinis!" Upchuck said.

'Of course he would say that!' Jennifer thought with a slight shake of her head.

"I always look for security guards leading away someone in handcuffs. Shoplifters are the best judges of merchandise," Jane said.

"I agree. If it's so good that people want to steal it, I want it," Jennifer said, quietly after exchanging a look with Jane.

"I meant more along the line of the qualities you look for? The stores? What should they be like?" the executive asked, trying to get the conversation away from the topic of shoplifting.

"I have a question. Do you think our demographic can really be addressed by middle-aged middle managers telling us what's fun to buy?" Jodie asked.

The executives looked at each other. It was clear that they didn't expect a student with critical thinking skills to be on the field trip. One of them turned to Daria. "How about you? How many times a year do you go to the mall?"

Daria looked annoyed. "That's none of your business. By the way, don't people usually get paid for participating in market research?"

"Research?" the executive asked in a strangled voice.

"Now, Daria, these busy executives have been nice enough to give their time to help educate us on mall economics," Mrs. Bennett said. "Tell us about flow, would you?"

Daria leaned between her two friends and pointed to where Brittany was still prancing and making cheer moves. "I bet that's a two-way mirror."

"Possibly," Jennifer said.

"You mean, if you turn out the lights you can see through it?" Jane asked as she reached back towards a light switch.

Jennifer shrugged slightly.

"Oh, you don't want to do that!" one of the executives said.

Jane turned off the lights. The students could then see three observers through the glass wall. They murmured amongst themselves.

"This is wrong!" Mack said.

"The focus group is, um, a very important tool in mall management. We thought that with this live demonstration..." One of the executives began. He was interrupted by Jodie.

"I feel used. I feel abused. I feel that this is not a fun mall after all and the media should be made aware of it!"

The executive changed tack. "All right, little lady." He reached into his pocket. "Here's a coupon for a free frozen yogurt."

"Don't insult me," Jodie said with her arms crossed.

The executive reached into his pocket again. "Make it a ten dollar merchandise coupon?"

_.XXIV .O .18 .24 .11000_

"You're still insulting her," Jane said.

One of the other executives held out two handfuls of coupons. "Okay, a twenty dollar merchandise coupon for everyone in the class."

"You don't get it. There's a principle involved," Daria said.

"No, there isn't," Jodie said as she joined most of the other students.

"So much for idealistic youth," Jane said.

"Yes, there is, damn it!" Daria said. She clenched her fists and moved towards the executives. She quickly found herself being held back by her two friends.

"Whoa there, Daria, cool down!" Jane said.

"Getting into a 'tussle' with the mall executives would not prove anything," Jennifer said.

Daria calmed down and sat.

"How about a fifty dollar coupon for you, little lady?"

"Don't insult me," Daria said, repeating Jodie's line from earlier.

The executive held out another coupon. "One hundred dollars, final offer."

"I'll take it," Daria said.

"What got into you?" Mrs. Bennett asked.

"Integrity," Daria said.

"I suppose," Mrs. Bennett said.

"Good answer," Jennifer said.

_.XXV .P .19 .25 .11001_

After having looked through other stores, Quinn and her entourage finally found the Cuter Computer store.

"Finally," she said.

"There is a lot of stuff here," Wolfgang said as he looked in.

"Of course," Quinn said.

"What are you getting first?" Xavier asked.

Quinn started walking to the software aisles. "Apparently they have Photoshop Elements 4 on sale," she said.

"But didn't that just come out this month?" Wolfgang asked.

"Yes," Quinn said.

_.XXVI .Q .1A .26 .11010_

Quinn soon found it. "Here it is, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4." She saw that it was 10% off. She picked it up and handed the package to Wolfgang.

"You are going to make us carry all the stuff?" he asked.

"Of course not! I will carry some of it," Quinn said.

"Of course," Wolfgang said.

_.XXVII .R .1B .27 .11011_

The sophomore economics students looked at the coupons that they had received.

"Cuter Computer, for all things to do with computers. Aw, man!" Kevin said after looking at his coupon.

"Books by the Ton. Interesting, maybe they have business-related stuff there," Mack said after looking at his.

Upchuck looked at his coupon "Incensory, for all your incense and related pagan worship needs! I don't have any use for this!"

"Drat!" Andrea Hecuba said as she overheard Upchuck.

"The Doo Dad Shop? What's a Doo Dad anyway?" Jane said.

"Sports Shorts! I don't have any use for shorts for sports!" Daria said.

"Scissor Wizard?" Jennifer said perplexed.

"Probably a store full of scissors," Jane said.

"Such a store would be quite useless," Jennifer said.

"Daria, Jen and Jane, you'll observe traffic patterns at the food concessions, and Kevin and Brittany, you will study and report back on shrinkage," Mrs. Bennett directed.

"What's shrinkage?" Kevin asked.

"Shrinkage is the retailing term for shoplifting. I'd like you to analyze its economic impact. Does everyone else understand their assignments?"

The class murmured in assent.

"Now, we'll meet back here at quarter to three. Remember, area F, section Moss, level three. Got it? F Moss Three."

Daria, Jane and Jennifer walked away as Mrs. Bennett and Kevin talked about a mnemonic device that he was going to use.

"Where do we start?" Jennifer asked.

"Scissor Wizard, I can actually use a new pair of scissors," Jane said.

"Of course," Jennifer said.

_.XXVIII .S .1C .28 .11100_

Back at Cuter Computer, Quinn and her entourage had gathered much software and hardware. "Have you got everything yet?" Xavier asked when a packet of 1 GB USB flash drives fell of the pile of stuff he was carrying. He put the pile aside and picked the packet up before hefting the pile again.

"Almost," Quinn said as she took a copy of _Age of Empires III_ off the shelf.

"Were going to need a trolley," Wolfgang said.

"We'll find the Walmart and borrow a trolley from there, after we're finished here," Quinn said.

"Great!" Xavier said.

"Here it is, Angejarni," Sandi said, having located the Fashion Label's store on D Moss 2.

"Why are we here?" Stacy asked.

"Sta-cy, Angejarni is, like heavily featured in _Waif_," Sandi said.

"Let's browse," Tori said. Tiffany followed her in.

"Come on Stacy," Sandi said.

Stacy sighed and followed Sandi into the store.

_.XXIX .T .1D .29 .11101_

Daria and her friends found Book by the Ton, which was larger than an usual outlet of that chain.

"That's a large bookstore!" Jane said.

"Come on, I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the mall," Daria said.

"Sure," Jennifer said. They went into the bookstore.

_.XXX .U .1E .30 .11110_

Quinn, Xavier, Wolfgang and Koichi left Cuter Computer, with the three boys carrying most of the hardware.

'Great! Why did I have to pay nearly a hundred dollars for a share of Quinn's stuff?' Xavier wondered. He saw that the three of them had paid for just over half of the price of the computer equipment. 'I hope she pays it back...'

"Right, the Walmart should be in C Orange Four," Quinn said as they started moving away from the store.

"That doesn't sound right," Wolfgang said.

"Oh?" Quinn asked.

"It was something else," Xavier said as he thought.

"I think it was B Amber Five," Wolfgang said.

"Or was it D Tangerine Three?" Koichi said.

"One of them. Look for that general shade of color, then for the number," Quinn said.

"I think the shade of color is multiple floor spanning," Koichi said.

"Then we will look for the numeral and _then_ the shade of color," Quinn said.

"That will work," Xavier said.

As they left the vicinity of Cuter Computer they didn't notice the Fashion Club coming out of Angejarni in the other direction...

_.XXXI .V .1F .31 .11111_

Guy exited the fashion label store carrying all of the Fashion Club's purchases (although he had noticed that Stacy had bought the least stuff). 'Why can't they carry their stuff themselves?' he asked himself.

"Where are we going now?" Tori asked.

"I'm sure there are other label stores here, Let's look for them," Sandi said.

"Suurrre," Tiffany said.

"Okay!" Stacy said.

"A great idea, Sandi," Tori said.

"Absolutely," Sandi said.

_.XXXII .W 20 .32 .100000_

Daria, Jennifer and Jane met Mack as they left the bookstore.

"I thought I would see if there is a large business section," he said.

"And you got the coupon," Jane said.

"There's that too," Mack said.

"I didn't see any, but then I only looked at the fiction, history, music and philosophy sections," Daria said.

"Oh," Mack said.

"There is one there; I found it as I looked at the Computer section," Jennifer said quietly.

"Thanks," Mack said.

Jennifer gave a small smile.

'Of course,' Daria thought.

"Let's find Scissor World," Jane suggested.

"Sure," Jennifer said.

"See ya," Mack said as he went into the bookstore. Jennifer waved.

_.XXXIII .X .21 .33 .100001_

They soon found said store, and found that it was a hair salon.

"This is unexpected," Jane said.

Jennifer walked up to the counter.

"You got here just in time," one of the hairdressers said. She looked at Jane and Daria "You're almost in time."

"I have this coupon," Jennifer said, shyly as the hair dresser started leading her to a chair. "But I just wanted a pair of scissors," she objected.

"We don't sell scissors, we cut hair. Which show?"

"What?" Jennifer asked, slightly confused and starting to back out. 'This isn't good,' she thought. She wanted out of the situation.

"Which TV show do you want your style from? Most of our clients go for a sitcom. Personally, I think you would look good without your hair over your face."

"Um, I like my hair the way it is!" Jennifer said. 'I don't want a cut here, in an unfamiliar place!' she thought.

"Keep your scissors away from her hair," Daria said.

'Thanks, Daria."

"She means it," Jane said.

"I could just style it. Choose a show and I will style it that way."

"Have you heard of _Sick Sad World_?" Jane asked.

Jennifer frowned. 'Not a good idea, Jane!'

The hairdresser frowned. "I saw an episode once. It was just too weird!"

_.XXXIV .Y .22 .34 .1000010_

"That was scary. Although it was nice of her to exchange the coupon for cash," Jennifer said after they had left Scissor Wizard.

"My stomach is grumbling. Let's participate in the food court traffic pattern," Daria said.

"Sure," Jennifer said.

"Sure, then afterwards we can find out what a Doo Dad is!" Jane said.

"Certainly," Jennifer said.

Daria's stomach grumbled loudly.

_.XXXV .Z .23 .35 .1000011_

With Wolfgang pushing a Walmart trolley full of computer equipment, Quinn and her friends approached one of the food courts for lunch. "How many outlets are there?" Xavier asked.

"Too many," Koichi said.

"Not sure," Quinn said.

_.XXXVI .! .10 .24 .36 .1000100_

Daria, Jane and Jennifer went to the end of a line in front of a take away pizza outlet.

'Wait a minute, that short-haired redhead looks familiar,' Jennifer thought. She quickly tapped said redhead on the shoulder...

_.XXXVII . .11 .25 .37 .1000101_

Quinn felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. She quickly turned around to find Jennifer, with Daria and Jane standing behind her. "Uh, oh."

"Well. What an unexpected opportunity for sibling bonding," Daria said.

"I'm going to be sick," Quinn said.

"Is that, like, a family thing?" Jane asked.

"What's that, Quinn?" Wolfgang asked.

"It's my sister and her friends."

"Oh, the sophomore Economics class field trip," Xavier said.

"You _knew_ about this?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah, sorry," Xavier said sheepishly.

Quinn turned back to Daria and her friends.

"Sorry," Jennifer said.

Quinn gave her a smile, showing that she had no hard feelings towards her.

"I'm sure Mom and Dad will be really pleased to hear I ran into you. Here at the mall. On this lovely school day!" Daria said flatly.

"State your terms, Daria,"

"It's weird. The only thing I can think of is more of our download allowance," Daria said.

"You wouldn't!" Quinn said.

Daria smirked.

"You would."

"There is an alternative," Daria said.

Quinn sighed. "What is this alternative?"

"I wouldn't mind taking it easy around the house for a month," Daria said.

"That seems a bit exorbitant," Jennifer murmured.

"It does, doesn't it. A _month,_ Daria?"

"Or you can just never set foot inside a mall for the rest of your sorry adolescent life. And a ride back to the Suburban hell known as Lawndale would be appreciated too," Daria said.

"Oh really?" Quinn asked.

"Uh, oh," Jennifer said, backing off. Jane, Xavier, Wolfgang and Koichi backed off also as the Morgendorffers began to argue about their deal for never mentioning the trip to the Mall of the Millennium at home...

_.XXXVIII .# .12 .26 .38 .1000110_

After five minutes, Daria and Quinn came to an agreement. "Here's the deal; I will do most of Daria's chores for a month, She gets an additional 20 megabytes a month and we will take her, Jane and Jennifer back to Lawndale with us," Quinn said.

"It'll be a tight squeeze, but we can manage it," Koichi said. He looked at the equipment. "Even with the equipment."

"Has to be better than the bus," Jane said.

Jennifer gave a small smile.

"I certainly won't get sick," Daria said.

"Well, well. If it isn't like, the _Geek_endorffer!" Sandi said as she approached, with the rest of the Fashion Club behind her.

"Of course she would be here!" Quinn said. "Murphy's Law and all."

"Uh, oh!" Jennifer said, remembering the happenings at the coffee house.

"I see you skipped school too!" Sandi said.

"Only for today," Quinn said with a hard edge to her voice.

Sandi looked at the trolley filled with equipment. "Only you would like, go to a Mega-Mall for computer equipment," she said.

"I'm sure others would!" Quinn said in retaliation.

Sandi stepped closer to Quinn. "No they wouldn't!" Sandi said.

"I would," Jennifer said.

"What did, like, Burn_out_ Girl, say?" Sandi asked.

'Not a good idea, Sandi!' Wolfgang thought.

Jane and Tori stepped back further and Stacy ran off to a nearby table.

"I hate that name!" Jennifer exclaimed.

"She said that she would also go to a Mega-mall for computer equipment," Jane said.

"None of your business anyway," Daria said.

"Whatever!" Sandi said. She turned her attention back to Quinn "Now, _Geek_endorffer, tell me why you think that you can be popular!"

Quinn glared at Sandi "You already _know_ that. My whole side of the _debate _at the Coffee House!"

Sandi stared at Quinn.

Quinn stared back.

"This is going nowhere," Tori said with some exhasperation.

"Oh really, then perhaps you can ask her, as President of the Fashion Club!"

"No Sandi, I wouldn't replace you, but this confrontation is going nowhere," Tori said.

Jennifer timidly moved beside Quinn in a show of support. Wolfgang also moved next to her.

Sandi glared at Jennifer, who, after a few seconds, ducked behind Quinn.

Jane quickly replaced her. 'You are not getting away with what you're attempting,' Jane thought as she added to Quinn and Wolfgang's stares upon Sandi.

A few minutes later Sandi and the rest of the Fashion Club left the food court. "Why are weee leaving?" Tiffany asked.

"After failing to make the Geekendorffer see sense, I like, decided to leave, and try again at a different time," Sandi said.

"That's not what I remember," Stacy said. Sandi glared at her. "Eep!"

'She's right, Sandi!' Tori thought.

"But I'm still hungry," Tiffany said.

"Tiffany, dear, one good thing about a Mall the size of this one is that there are like, multiple food courts," Sandi said.

"O-oh."

'Thank goodness,' Stacy thought.

"That was strange," Jennifer said as she watched the Fashion Club and Guy leave.

"Don't worry about it," Daria said.

Jane turned to Quinn. "Where do we meet before we leave?" she asked.

"D Lavender Five, it's close to the secondary entrance," Quinn said.

"You got that?" Daria asked.

"There's nothing to it," Jane said.

"Easy to remember," Jennifer said.

The two groups then got their lunch before going their separate ways.

_.XXXIX .$ .13 .27 .39 .1000111_

Quinn reflected on the situation. 'Why is it that, Sandi has to oppose the notion of a geek like me being popular so stridently?' She had thought about it quite a lot since the opening night of the Coffee House. She hadn't come to any conclusion. One thing was certain, she and Sandi were likely to remain enemies for the rest of their high school years...

She also thought about the situation with Daria. Their relationship seemed to be getting better, Jane and Jennifer having a positive influence. Their discussion/argument about the terms of her silence of the matter of her having skipped school may have been longer even a couple of weeks before.

"What's up, Quinn?" Wolfgang asked as he finished his burger.

"Just thinking about what just happened," Quinn said as she sipped her diet soda.

"You mean with Sandi?"

Quinn nodded.

"She'll get over it," Wolfgang said.

"I'm not sure she will," Quinn said.

"Eventually," Wolfgang said.

_.XL .% .14 .28 .40 .1001000_

Daria, Jane and Jennifer soon found the Doo Dad shop. "What is this stuff?" Jane asked, looking at the contents of the store in dismay.

"Who would buy such crappy, useless junk?" Daria asked.

"It definitely looks that way," Jennifer said.

"Then this coupon is useless!" Jane said.

Kevin and Brittany then came out of the store. Kevin was singing _Hundred bottles of beer on the wall_.

"Did you see the cute little thingy with the cute thingy?" Brittany asked.

"I got it for you, babe."

"Oh, Kev, this is the first cute thingy that you've bought me since... wait... you didn't steal this, did you?" Brittany asked.

"It was shrinkage, babe!" Kevin said.

"Oo-ooh!" Brittany dragged her boyfriend back into the store.

Jennifer, Jane and Daria then entered the store. As Jane entered a bell went off. The staff rushed up to her. "_When your feeling bad or mad or sad, buy a doo dad! You'll feel glad! It's not too sad, to buy a doo dad, today_!"

Jennifer glared at the staff.

"What are you doing to our friend?" Daria asked.

One of the staff gave Jane an armfull of merchandise. "You're our lucky ten-thousandth customer. All these doo dads are yours for free!"

Jane glared at him.

"Don't you get it? You're our winner!" the staff member said.

"I get it, but I don't want this stuff. What is it for anyway?" Jane said.

"You collect it," the staff member said. The other staff members gathered around them, and a photographer took a photo of the group.

"Look, I came here because I got a twenty dollar coupon, but since I got accosted by the staff, I'm just going to leave it on the counter and leave!" Jane said.

"Why didn't you say so?" one of the staff said. She immediately piled additional 'doo dads' on the pile that Jane already held.

"Look! I'm not leaving with either this stuff or the coupon," Jane said.

"Neither am I," Daria said when the staff turned to her.

"Nor I," Jennifer said.

One of the staff went behind the counter. "Here is a twenty in exchange for the coupon," she said.

Jane dumped the pile of 'Doo-Dads' on the counter alongside the coupon, grabbed the twenty and dashed out of the store.

Daria and Jennifer quickly followed her.

_.XLI .^ .15 .29 .41 .1001001_

Brittany placed the 'Doo Dad' that Kevin had 'shrinkaged' back on the shelf. "No more, shrinkage, Kevvie!" she said.

"But Babe, Mrs. Bennett wants us to do it!" Kevin said.

Brittany glared at him. "No, Kevvie, She meant something else!"

"Really, then what?"

Brittany twirled her hair in thought. "To examine its effect on something," she said.

"Oh."

"Its impact on economic performance?"

"Ok."

_.XLII .& .16 .2A .42 .1001010_

Andrea waited outside the Insensory store for Upchuck. 'He had better come and go quickly!' she thought. Then Upchuck turned a nearby corner and approached her.

"You said you wanted to swap coupons, you feisty maiden of darkness?" he said, sleaze dripping off most of his words.

"Yes, you creepy casanova!" She held out the coupon that she had been given, hoping to get this encounter over with!

Upchuck grabbed that coupon and immediately placed the Insensory coupon into the palm of her other hand. Andrea then dashed into the store with a rather hasty and barely audible "Thanks."

"_Feisty._"

_.XLIII .* .17 .2B .43 .1001011_

Jodie and Mack met at one of the food courts. Mack could see that Jodie had bought a large number of books. More than he had bought with his Books by the Ton coupon. 'I guess there is another bookstore in this Mall,' he thought.

"Hi, Mack."

"Hi, Jodie."

"So you used your coupon?" Jodie asked.

"Yeah, I figured that I may as well," Mack said.

"Cool," Jodie said.

"Which coupon did you get?" Mack asked.

"Toy Universe."

They continued talking about their experiences at the mega-mall.

_.XLIV .( .18 .2C .44 .1001100_

Daria, Jane and Jennifer entered the D Lavender Five section. They could see that Quinn and her male companions were waiting for them.

"Hi, Daria," Quinn said.

"Let's go, I want to get as far away from this mall as possible," Daria said.

"Sure," Quinn said.

"What are you going to do with all that stuff?" Jennifer asked as they headed towards the exit.

"And how are you going to sneak it all inside, without your parents noticing?" Wolfgang asked.

"With luck, only Daddy will be home," Quinn said with a nervous laugh. "I'll take it all into the garage, and then take it up to my room slowly."

"You mean, through the laundry chute?" Daria asked.

"Some of it, yes," Quinn said.

"That would take a long time," Jane said, with an eyebrow raised.

"I'll just wait until neither of them are home, then take the rest up," Quinn said as the group reached the exit.

_.XLV .) .19 .2D .45 .1001101_

Mrs. Bennett did a head count as the class re-entered the bus to go back to Lawndale. "Oh dear, we're three short!" she said.

"Jane said that she, Jennifer and Daria were heading back to Lawndale with another group of Lawndale High kids," Jodie said.

"She also said that the bus made Daria sick," Mack said.

"Oh, OK," Mrs. Bennett said.

_XLVI .- .1A .2E .46 .1001110_

**Lawndale**

Koichi drove the large group back into Lawndale on State Route 276 at 4:40.

"Where to first?" he asked.

"My place, 111 Howard Drive," Jane said.

"Sure, but that's on the other side of town," Koichi said.

"We can drop someone else off on the way," Jane said with a shrug.

"I need to get my car from the school," Jennifer said.

"There you go," Jane said.

"Sure," Koichi said.

_.XLVII .+ .1B .2F .47 .1001111_

They arrived at Xavier's house, at 83 Nicoll Avenue, first. "Bye, Quinn, thanks for letting me come," he said.

"That's ok," Quinn said with a slight laugh.

After leaving Xavier's house they went towards Lawndale High, so that Jennifer could get her car, then dropped off Jane at Casa Lane, and finally went to the Morgendorffer's house.

Neither of the Morgendorffer parents were home, so Koichi backed up the SUV to the garage door, which Quinn then opened.

"Ok, just unload it all on that bench over there," she directed.

"Sure, Quinn," Wolfgang said.

"Ok," Xavier said.

Daria went through the garage to the dining room as the boys started unloading the computer equipment.

_XLVIII ._ .1C .30 .48 .1010000_

Koichi watched as Xavier and Wolfgang walked away after having said goodbye to Quinn. He turned back to Quinn. "Thanks for the trip, Quinn, it was fun," he said.

"Yeah, it was fun," Quinn said with a giggle.

"Definitely. Anyway, I must get home, my parents will be wondering, see ya, Quinn," Koichi said. He got into the car.

"Bye."

_.XLIX .= .1D .31 .49 .1010001_

Later that night, Sandi pondered on the situation that she had found herself in earlier that day. Did she act immature when she had encountered that annoyingly popular geek at the Mall of the Millennium?

_.L .{ 1E .32 .50 .1010010_

**Flashback – Mall of the Millennium**

_Sandi, and the others in the Fashion Club walked away from the food court where they had encountered the Morgendorffer sisters and their friends._

The Fashion Club sat a table after they had bought their lunches.

"Sandi, I think you could have handled that confrontation better," Tori said.

"Oh, really? What do you mean?" Sandi asked, annoyed at Tori.

'

"You didn't act like the mature teenager you are, you acted more like either of your brothers would have," Tori said.

Sandi stared at Tori.

Stacy slid down in her seat.

"Gee, Tori, you like _insulting_ me don't you?"

Tori stared Sandi in the eye. "I'm not insulting you, Sandi, I'm telling you what I saw."

Sandi stared back.

Tori continued staring.

"Fine! But that _geek_, like, deserved it!"

Tori shook her head. "If you keep it up, your popularity will continue its downward slide. Quinn is totally catching up on you," she said.

Sandi crossed her arms. "I suppose."

Tori sighed.

_The Fashion Club continued eating their lunch in silence_.

**End of Flashback**

_ .LI .} 1F .33 .51 .1010011_

Sandi stared at herself in the mirror and frowned. 'I suppose that I _did_ act immature.' She thought for a few minutes before deciding to stay away from Quinn and leave her alone. 'The novelty of a popular geek will go away and there will be nothing she could do about it!'


End file.
